Evolution 


t  at 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


FROM  THE    LIBRARY  OF 

DR.  JOSEPH   LECONTE. 

GIFT  OF  MRS.   LECONTE. 

.No. 


MAN  AND  THE  STATE 

STUDIES  IN  APPLIED  SOCIOLOGY 


MAN 
AND    THE    STATE 

STUDIES  IN  APPLIED  SOCIOLOGY 


POPULAR  LECTURES  AND  DISCUSSIONS 

BEFORE  THE 
BROOKLYN  ETHICAL  ASSOCIATION 


(UN 


NEW  YORK 
D,  APPLETGN  AND  COMPAN 


COPYRIGHT,  1892, 
BY  THE  BROOKLYN  ETHICAL  ASSOCIATION. 


TO 

BENJAMIN    HARRISON 

AND 

GROVER    CLEVELAND 

EMINENT   CITIZENS   OP   THE   REPUBLIC,   AND 
CHOSEN  LEADERS   OF  THE   PEOPLE   IN   A    GREAT   POLITICAL   CONTEST 

THIS  HUMBLE   EFFORT 
TO  ELEVATE   QUESTIONS    OF   PUBLIC   POLICY  INTO  THE   FIELD 

OF   SCIENTIFIC   DISCUSSION 
IS  RESPECTFULLY   DEDICATED. 


PREFACE. 


THE  topics  herein  discussed,  though  following  naturally  those  con- 
sidered in  the  previous  volumes  on  Evolution,  Sociology,  and  Evolu- 
tion in  Science,  Philosophy,  and  Art,  were  selected  for  treatment  at 
this  time  in  view  of  our  approaching  presidential  contest.  Treating, 
as  they  do,  of  the  relations  of  the  individual  to  the  State  as  illus- 
trated in  the  practical  issues  of  current  American  politics,  it  was  not 
without  consultation  with  those  whose  wisdom  and  judgment  will  be 
recognized  by  all  intelligent  Americans  that  the  trustees  of  the  Brook- 
lyn Ethical  Association  finally  decided  upon  the  adoption  of  this  pro- 
gramme. 

Among  those  who  were  thus  consulted  was  the  Hon.  Andrew  D. 
White,  ex-president  of  Cornell  University  and  now  the  United  States 
Minister  to  Russia,  who  gave  the  proposition  his  cordial  indorsement 
and  encouragement.  "  I  find  my  thoughts  more  and  more  conform- 
ing themselves  to  the  idea  of  an  evolution  of  humanity,"  he  wrote ; 
"  more  and  more  everything  I  work  out  takes  shape  with  reference 
to  this.  Hence  I  shall  look  with  increasing  interest  to  the  result  of 
your  effort  in  Brooklyn  during  the  coming  year.  .  .  .  Persevere  by  all 
means."  Prof.  John  Fiske  also  gave  the  plan  of  the  association  his 
hearty  approbation.  "  I  have  carefully  read  the  inclosed  synopsis,"  he 
affirmed,  "  and  call  it  a  noble  scheme.  Such  lectures  and  discussions 
are  just  what  is  needed."  The  Hon.  James  S.  Clarkson,  the  Hon. 
George  Hoadly,  and  others  of  various  party  connections,  actively  in- 
terested in  the  practical  aspects  of  our  political  situation,  personally 
and  in  an  extensive  correspondence  also  expressed  their  profound 
interest  in  our  work,  and  their  confidence  in  its  supreme  importance 
as  a  means  of  political  education. 

Superficially  it  may  appear  that  we  already  have  an  embarras  de 
richesses  of  political  discussions,  particularly  in  our  presidential  years, 
The  projectors  of  these  lectures,  however,  had  quite  another  object  in 
view  than  that  of  adding  to  the  literature  of  partisan  debate.  Their 
aim  has  been  to  approach  the  current  topics  of  political  controversy 


viii  Preface. 

from  an  entirely  different  point  of  view — that  of  the  scientific  method 
as  exemplified  in  modern  evolutionary  sociology. 

The  ordinary  modes  of  political  discussion  on  the  one  hand  are 
empirical,  appealing  to  superficial,  one-sided,  and  half-digested  facts 
of  our  existing  social  status,  and  on  the  other  hand  a  priori  and  meta- 
physical, deducing  partisan  dogmas  from  assumed  universal  postu- 
lates of  ethics,  economics,  and  social  science.  The  writers  upon  these 
topics  have  hardly  caught  the  first  gleam  of  the  light  which  has 
thrown  its  saving  beams  upon  other  fields  of  research  and  investiga- 
tion— the  light  of  a  true  historical  method  based  upon  the  perception 
that  society  and  institutions  are  growths,  not  manufactures,  and  that 
genuine  progress  and  improvement  in  politics  and  government  can 
only  come  through  recognition  and  obedience  of  the  scientifically 
ascertained  laws  of  social  growth. 

The  manifest  failure  of  political  parties  to  secure  the  amelioration 
and  cure  of  evils  universally  recognized  in  our  present  social  condi- 
tions— evils  of  poverty,  of  crime,  of  taxation,  of  immigration,  of  race 
conflict,  of  land  exhaustion,  of  municipal  maladministration,  of  the 
unstable  and  unscientific  relation  and  adjustment  of  public  and  pri- 
vate enterprise — and  the  tacitly  confessed  inability  of  the  advocates 
of  the  two  diverse  and  discredited  methods  of  political  discussion 
above  described  to  meet  on  common  intelligible  ground  and  convince 
rational  minds  of  the  wisdom  and  efficacy  of  either  mode  of  pro- 
cedure, has  given  rise  to  a  medley  of  political  theorizing  and  experi- 
mentation— socialistic,  nationalistic,  anarchistic,  and  what  not — ex- 
ploited by  political  conjurors,  aiming  by  the  magical  talismans  of  me- 
chanically devised  panaceas  to  "  abolish  poverty "  and  revolutionize 
society,  but  even  more  unscientific  and  futile  in  their  schemes  for 
social  amelioration  than  the  older  partisan  advocates. 

This  volume  proposes  no  such  magical  panacea  for  our  social  and 
political  ills.  It  does  not  assume  to  definitively  indicate  the  final  set- 
tlement of  the  questions  herein  discussed.  It  is.  rather  the  modest 
John  the  Baptist  of  a  new  political  method — the  method  of  science 
and  evolution.  Recognizing  the  relativity  of  knowledge  in  this  as  in 
other  fields  of  discussion,  this  method  constitutes  the  only  ground 
whereon  people  of  diverse  views  and  philosophic  students  of  societary 
problems  can  amicably  meet  with  a  rational  hope  of  ultimate  substan- 
tial agreement  in  matters  of  public  policy.  On  the  intelligent  accept- 
ance of  this  method  we  firmly  believe  depend  not  only  the  unity  and 
prosperity  of  our  own  beloved  America,  but  of  all  the  nations  of  the 
world.  Its  blind  or  willful  rejection  means  the  progressive  decay  of 
civic  virtue  and  the  steady  decline  and  final  extinction  of  national 
life. 


Preface.  ix 

Questions  dividing  the  public  mind  have  herein,  as  far  as  possible, 
been  presented  from  contrasting  points  of  view  with  candor  and  fair- 
ness, the  advocates  of  each  aiming  to  justify  their  positions  by  appeals 
to  the  scientific  method  and  the  recognized  principles  of  social  evo- 
lution. This  we  believe  renders  these  lectures  in  their  printed  form 
adapted  to  sustain  the  interest  of  the  reader  as  they  did  that  of  the 
large  and  intelligent  audiences  which  attended  their  oral  delivery,  and 
to  provoke  fruitful  thought  and  wise  action  on  political  issues  as  cer- 
tainly as  the  ordinary  heated  appeal  of  the  emotional  orator,  unhap- 
pily too  familiar  in  our  political  campaigns,  serves  to  produce  the 
contrary  effect  of  intensifying  preconceived  and  unscientific  partisan 
prejudices. 

Recognizing  with  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  that  "the  end  which  the 
statesman  should  keep  in  view  as  higher  than  all  other  ends  is  the 
formation  of  character,"  the  ethical  bearing  of  the  topics  under  dis- 
cussion has  been  kept  steadily  in  mind.  Nor  have  we  failed  to  remem- 
ber with  Prof.  Le  Conte  that  "  the  most  potent  factor  in  human  prog- 
ress is  not  found  in  organic  evolution,  but  in  the  voluntary  co-opera- 
tion of  man  in  his  own  evolution." 

Nobly  to  inspire  such  voluntary  co-operation  and  rightly  to  guide 
the  activities  flowing  from  it  has  been  the  aim,  we  are  sure,  of  all 
who  have  contributed  to  these  discussions.  It  is  confidently  hoped, 
therefore,  that  they  may  not  only  be  immediately  helpful  in  suggest- 
ing the  true  solution  of  the  problems  now  at  issue  in  America,  but 
permanently  useful  in  educating  the  public  mind  and  inspiring  con- 
fidence in  the  method  of  science  and  evolution  as  the  efficient  means 
of  promoting  fullness  of  life  and  lasting  prosperity  in  the  nation  as 
well  as  in  the  individual  citizen.  With  this  hope,  this  book  is  com- 
mended not  only  to  the  attention  of  the  individual  reader,  but  also  to 
political  clubs,  leagues,  and  schools  of  political  science  throughout 
the  country. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface, .     .    vii 

THE  DUTY  OF  A  PUBLIC  SPIRIT, 3 

Relation  of  religion  to  citizenship ;  evil  influences  in  modern 
society;  various  forms  of  anarchism;  a  religious  secularism 
advocated.  , 

BY  E.  BENJAMIN  ANDREWS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

THE  STUDY  OF  APPLIED  SOCIOLOGY, 23 

Nature  and  need  of  a  social  science;  difficulties,  objective  and 
subjective;  various  kinds  of  bias;  preparation  necessary  for 
this  study. 

BY  DR.  ROBERT  Gr.  ECCLES! 

REPRESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT, 55 

Its  historical  evolution;  the  Witenagemote  and  the  English 
Parliament :  Puritan  influence ;  proportional  representation ; 
individual  virtue  necessary. 

BY  EDWIN  D.  MEAD. 

SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  BALLOT, 85 

The   machinery  of    representation;    the   spoils   system;    party 
election     and    nominating:    machinery;    the 

>t,  and  the  second  cl* 


The  en; 

natural    r  land    ta:, 

>  the  land. 

;t  OTIS  T.  . 

. 
. 


xii  Contents. 

PAGE 

machinery;    the  bicameral  system;   home  rule;  limitation  of 
corporate  functions. 

BY  DR.  LEWIS  G.  JANES. 

TAXATION  AND  REVENUE  :  THE  FEEE-TEADE  VIEW,  195 

Moral  status  of  the  question ;  self-interest ;  the  wages  argument ; 
diversification  of  industries ;  cheapness ;  the  historical  argu- 
ment ;  free  trade  and  social  reform. 

BY  THOMAS  G.  SHEARMAN. 

TAXATION  AND  REVENUE  :  THE  PEOTECTIONIST  VIEW,  231 

Protection .  a  factor  in  social  evolution ;  differentiation  of 
national  types ;  the  policeman  function  in  society ;  necessity 
of  guarding  the  wage-level;  cosmopolitan  character  of  scien- 
tific protection. 

BY  PROFESSOR  GEORGE  GUNTON. 

THE  MONETABY  PEOBLEM, 255 

Evolution  of  a  currency;  the  precious  metals  as  money;  fluctu- 
ating ratios  of  value ;  gold  and  silver  standards ;  bimetallism  ; 
Gresham's  law ;  banks  and  banking ;  dangers  of  a  depreciated 
circulation. 

BY  WILLIAM  POTTS. 

THE  IMMIGRATION  PROBLEM, 291 

Influence  of  immigration  on  American  institutions ;  right  of  the 
nation  to  exclude  dangerous  classes;  statistics  of  immigra- 
tion ;  Chinese  and  Italian  immigrants ;  ethical,  economic, 
ethnic,  and  political  aspects  of  the  problem. 

BY  Z.  SIDNEY  SAMPSON. 

EVOLUTION"  OF  THE  AFRIC-AMERICAN",      .     .     .    .    .  317 

Historical  aspects  of  the  problem ;  the  negro  in  slavery  and 
freedom:  his  ethical,  intellectual,  and  industrial  progress; 
testimony  of  Southern  educators ;  future  of  the  colored  race  in 
America. 

BY  REV.  SAMUEL  J.  BARROWS. 

THE  RACE  PEOBLEM  IN-  THE  SOUTH, 349 

Scientific  method  necessary  in  its  treatment;  ethnological 
aspects  of  the  problem ;  the  laws  of  race-contact ;  principles 
of  race  improvement:  destiny  of  the  lower  races;  political 
and  ethical  aspects  of  the  problem. 

BY  PROFESSOR  JOSEPH  LE  CONTE,  LL.  D. 

EDUCATION  AS  RELATED  TO  CITIZENSHIP,    ....  405 

Vital  relation  of  intelligence  to  free  institutions ;  educational 
statistics  m  America ;  socialism  and  the  public  school ;  private 


Contents.  xiii 

PAGE 

and  parochial  schools;  moral  and  religious  education;  edu- 
cation in  the  duties  of  citizenship. 

BY  KEY.  JOHN  W.  CHADWICK. 

THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY, 435 

Its  origin,  history,  and  fundamental  doctrines ;    limitation    of 
governmental  functions ;   home  rule  and  economy ;    relation 
•     to  slavery  and  the  tariff :  finance,  the  silver  question,  and  civil- 
service  reform  ;  relation  of  Democracy  to  Puritanism ;  present 
attitude  and  prospects  of  the  party. 

BY  EDWARD  M.  SHEPARD. 

THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY, 405 

Its  relation  to  the  Federal  and  Whig  parties ;  its  opposition  to 
State  rights;  its  antislavery  attitude  and  accomplishments; 
its  advocacy!  jf  hard  money,  internal  improvements,  and  a  pro- 
tective tariff ;  its  present  attitude  and  prospects. 

BY  HON.  ROSWELL  G.  HORR. 

THE  INDEPENDENT  IN  POLITICS, .483 

Individual  responsibility  of  the  citizen  in  a  free  government ; 
tyranny  of  party  majorities ;  supremacy  of  conscience  in 
determining  individual  action ;  party  responsibility  a  delusion ; 
personal  independence  the  goal  of  evolution. 

BY  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR. 

MORAL  QUESTIONS  IN  POLITICS,      509 

The  new  point  of  v;ew;  evolution's  definition  of  moral  questions; 
objections  to  man's  meddling  with  such  questions;  law  and 
the  state;  change  of  sentiment  in  regard  to  law;  imperfections 
of  the  political  method ;  superior  excellence  of  the  moral 
method ;  relation  of  the  two  methods  under  evolution's  law  of 
relativity. 

BY  REV.  JOHN  C.  KIMBALL. 


THE 
>ITTY  OF  A  PUBLIC  SPIRIT 


BY 

E.   BENJAMIN  ANDREWS,  LL.  D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Bryce's  The  American  Commonwealth ;  Storey's  Politics  as  a  Duty 
and  as  a  Career ;  De  Tocqueville's  Democracy  in  America,  and  Ameri- 
can Institutions ;  Stickney's  Democratic  Government ;  Spencer's  Jus- 
tice ;  Fiske's  Civil  Government  in  the  United  States ;  Lieber's  Political 
Ethics ;  Macy's  Our  Government ;  Tiedeman's  The  Unwritten  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States ;  Sidgwick's  The  Elements  of  Politics. 


THE   DUTY  OF  A   PUBLIC   SPIRIT. 

BY  E.  BENJAMIN  ANDREWS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

IN  an  old  Jewish  chronicle  there  is  depicted  a  beautiful 
scene,  which  suggests  a  deal  of  gospel  for  our  day.  The 
great  prophet  of  Israel,  Elijah's  successor,  lies  upon  his 
death-bed.  King  Joash  bends  over  him,  and,  mindful  of 
the  eminent  and  unremiUing  public  service  of  the  man,  who 
will  have  no  successor  in  this,  cries  out  in  agony  that  Israel's 
central  hope,  the  main  defense  of  the  state,  is  depart- 
ing, its  standing  army,  as  it  were — for  the  war-chariot  was 
in  Israel  now  the  chief  arm  of  military  strength — "  My 
father,  my  father,  the  chariots  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen 
thereof  vanish  in  thy  death !  Our  army  is  no  more.  We 
are  a  prey  to  our  foes  soon  as  thou,  with  thy  wise  counsels 
and  thy  patriotic  heart,  art  gone." 

Elisha  was  worthy  of  this  tribute.  Unlike  Elijah,  he  was 
no  monk.  With  him  duty  meant  not  meditation,  still  less 
moping,  but  life — earthly  life,  too — actively,  practically  lived. 
According  to  his  creed,  the  perfection  of  walking  with  his 
Maker  was  usefully  to  walk  with  men.  He  had  not  im- 
mured himself  in  a  cave  in  order  to  be  at  peace  with  his 
conscience.  His  goodness  had  shown  itself  rather  in  all 
sorts  of  acts  useful  to  his  fellow-men.  According  to  the 
story,  which  is  unquestionably  a  good  analogue  of  the  exact 
facts  of  Elisha's  life,  it  was  his  joy,  when  need  arose,  to  in- 
crease a  widow's  stock  of  provision.  At  his  intercession,  a 
dear  child  given  up  for  dead  had  been  laid  back  living  into 
its  mother's  arms.  He  had  furnished  food  for  one  hungry 
company,  and  rendered  innocuous  that  of  another  when  it 
had  been  poisoned. 

Not  alone  kindness  and  charity  to  special  individuals 
marked  the  temper  of  this  religious  hero,  but  still  more  an 
intense  civic  spirit,  broadening  out  into  philanthropy,  a  zeal 
for  the  welfare  of  men  far  and  wide.  A  benign  act,  at 
the  request  of  the  citizens  of  Jericho,  purifying  their  water- 
supply,  began  his  prophetic  career.  Though  not  a  fighting 
man,  he  took  the  field  with  the  armies  of  his  country,  plac- 
ing all  his  natural  and  all  his  prophetic  skill  at  the  service 


4  The  Duty  of  a  PuNi 

of  kings  and  generals.  Once,  when  the  forces  faced  the 
enemy  but  were  dying  of  thirst,  he  won  the  campaign  by  re- 
vealing copious  supplies  of  water.  In  civil  matters  as  well 
he  was  always  ready  with  his  aid.  Prophet,  he  was  often 
virtually  prime  minister.  Imperfect,  unrighteous,  irrelig- 
ious, idolatrous  as  his  country  and  its  institutions  were  in 
his  age,  he  would  not  desert  or  renounce  them.  Even  when 
siege  and  famine  pressed  and  men  were  dying  by  scores 
on  every  hand,  Elisha  remained  by,  content  to  fare — nay, 
determined  to  fare — no  better  than  the  rank  and  file  of  Israel 
fared. 

Stanch  patriot  that  he  was,  the  prophet  had  an  enthu- 
siasm for  humanity,  overleaping  the  bounds  of  his  own  land 
and  nation,  which  for  those  times  was  veritably  miraculous. 
It  made  him  cosmopolitan  in  his  feeling.  He  healed  of  a 
deadly  disease  the  chief  captain  in  the  host  of  his  nation's 
worst  enemy,  Syria,  sending  him  back  to  his  home  and  his 
sovereign  whole  and  happy.  Having  captured  a  hostile 
force  by  special  stratagem  and  not  by  superiority  in  war, 
he  forbade  that  they  should  be  smitten,  but  ordered  them 
fed  and  set  free  to  march  back  to  their  own  camp.  In  re- 
turn, when  on  one  occasion  he  visited  the  court  of  King 
Ben-Haded  of  Syria,  he  was  received  with  rare  honor,  and 
consulted  in  reference  to  the  high  affairs  of  that  foreign 
state. 

From  this  brief  survey  of  Elisha's  manner  we  see  what 
an  idea  he  had  and  carried  out  touching  the  attitude  which 
a  good  man  ought  to  hold  toward  public  matters.  He  was 
a  devotee  of  religion,  specially  called  to  teach  the  divine 
will,  to  promote  righteousness  in  the  land ;  but,  notwith- 
standing this,  or  rather  just  on  this  account,  he  was  in- 
terested in  everything  that  went  on  in  the  state — if  it  was 
good,  to  promote  it;  if  evil,  to  denounce  it  and  put  it 
down.  He  thought  of  his  public  spirit  not  as  inimical  to 
his  religious  experience  or  influence,  or  as  a  lingering 
manifestation  of  depravity  to  be  tolerated  like  the  imper- 
fect morality  of  the  Mosaic  law,  but  as  the  direct  and  most 
precious  product  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  manifesting  itself 
in  him. 

Herein  this  distinguished  Old  Worthy  beautifully  an- 
ticipates modern  Christianity.  Both  in  his  precepts  and 
in  his  example  of  living  to  do  good,  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity enjoins  men  to  make  all  human  interests  their  care. 
We  are  to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves.  No  fussy  inter- 


The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  5 

ference  with  others'  concerns  is  commanded,  but  a  positive, 
outgoing,  brotherly  kindness,  leading  a  man  to  do  for  oth- 
ers all  the  good  he  can,  spending  himself  for  his  kind 
and  dying  for  them,  if  need  is.  Even  to  Caesar  we  are  to 
render  what  is  his,  never  grudging.  The  disaffection  toward 
human  government  which  the  Church  of  the  second  and 
third  centuries  betrayed,  leading  Tertullian,  among  others, 
to  identify  the  Eoman  Empire  with  Satan's  kingdom  and 
placing  the  Church  during  some  ages  in  most  unpleasant 
contrast  with  contemporary  Stoic  philosophy — that  was  not 
from  Jesus  Christ,  but  diametrically  opposed  to  his  teach- 
ing. 

The  Apostle  Paul  knows  this.  He  preaches  that  whoso 
resisteth  the  power — which  then  was  the  Roman  power — 
resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God ;  and  he  suits  his  action  to 
this  doctrine  of  his.  When  pressed  by  the  bloodthirsty 
bigots  of  his  race  and  religion,  he  appeals  to  Caesar  to  save 
him  from  death  at  their  hands.  In  Elisha's  creed,  con- 
structive, making  religion  holily  secular,  prophet,  apostle, 
and  Great  Teacher  are  perfectly  at  one. 

I  need  not  say  that  this  view  of  righteousness  is  in  our 
time  exceedingly  rare.  "With  most  men  who  call  themselves 
religious,  the  Church  is  the  only  field  of  God's  immediate 
activity.  Many  secular  moralists  feel  much  the  same  way. 
The  state,  society,  the  busy  life  of  mankind,  they  despise  as 
something  mean  and  of  trifling  consequence,  if  not  devil's 
affairs  out  and  out.  Men  not  serious  at  all,  noticing  the 
indifference  of  so  many  professedly  and  actually  conscien- 
tious people  toward  all  purely  public  matters,  are  confirmed 
in  their  selfish  tendency  to  let  society  go  its  way  alone,  so 
that  they  ignore  its  interests  save  when  they  see  chances  to 
advantage  themselves  by  manipulating  them. 

It  thus  comes  to  pass  that  unselfish  and  constant  regard 
for  public  affairs  is  a  phenomenon.  There  is  occasional  in- 
terest. We  love  our  country.  At  elections  we  cheer  our- 
selves hoarse  for  our  candidates  and  platforms,  and  by  no 
means  all  that  is  selfish.  Let  our  country  be  attacked  by 
traitors  from  within  or  by  enemies  from  without,  mighty 
armies  would  rise  in  a  day  of  men  ready  to  die  for  her. 
But  zeal  of  this  sort  is  sporadic,  unsteady,  intermittent. 
Would-be  good  citizens  forget  that  peace  needs  its  heroes  no 
less  than  war,  that  the  social  structure  may  fall  from  dry 
rot  as  well  as  from  a  cannonade.  They  imagine  that  the 
state  no  less  than  the  soul  has  a  necessary  immortality ;  that 


H  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit. 

like  a  cork  it  may  dance  about  upon  the  water,  now  tossed 
up  and  apparently  unsupported,  and  again  for  an  instant 
submerged,  but  can  not  sink. 

I  have  hinted  that  much  of  this  coldness  toward  public 
affairs  comes  from  men's  sheer  selfishness,  narrow-hearted- 
aess,  disposition  to  care  for  nothing  that  does  not  palpably 
and  closely  concern  themselves.  But  you  can  not  trace  it 
all  to  that  source.  It  is  due  in  large  measure  to  certain 
false  views,  partly  religious  and  partly  philosophical,  which 
have  had  and  still  have  alarming  vogue. 

On  the  religious  side  we  have  been  trained  for  genera- 
tions sharply  to  distinguish  between  the  sacred  and  the 
secular,  and  to  place  political  and  social  duties  in  the  secu- 
lar class.  It  is  of  course  urged  that  a  good  man  should 
carry  his  morality  everywhere,  always  be  honest,  do  all  the 
good  possible,  set  a  helpful  example,  and  so  on ;  and  not 
seldom  nowadays  are  we  explicitly  admonished  by  relig- 
ious teachers  that  there  are  no  hemispheres  to  a  good  man's 
life :  that  it  is  all  one  continent,  solid  and  continuous.  But 
this  is  not  yet  the  general  tone  of  religious  speech,  and  no- 
where has  it  sufficiently  taken  effect.  Sunday  is  the  Lord's 
day;  Monday,  not  Satan's  exactly,  but  neutral,  somehow. 
The  prayer  is  religious,  the  trade  is — what  it  is.  If  I  de- 
voutly attend  church,  I  advance  myself  toward  heaven  ;  if  I 
plunge  into  business,  however  legitimate,  strange  if  I  am 
not  reputed  a  worldling,  spite  of  sincerest  piety  on  my  part. 

Equally  strenuous  has  been  the  dogma  of  the  Church  to 
the  effect  that  heaven,  eternity,  is  the  final  cause  of  man's 
life  on  earth.  This  existence,  it  is  held  forth,  has  meaning 
only  for  the  next.  So  persistently  has  this  doctrine  been 
inculcated  that  most  of  us  believe  it  and  act  upon  it,  not- 
withstanding the  protests  we  inwardly  make  in  our  more 
spiritual  moments.  In  vain'  do  we  reflect  that  a  piece  of 
time  well  used  here  on  earth  in  the  active  love  of  man 
must  be  as  beautiful  a  thing  as  any  equal  measure  of  eter- 
nity can  be.  In  vain  do  we  consider  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus 
Christ  so  rich  that,  do  our  best,  we  can  not  conceive  his  sub- 
sequent or  any  existence  a  whit  richer — it  is  a  second  na- 
ture with  us  to  subordinate  the  present  state  in  importance 
unit  by  unit  to  the  world  to  come. 

Now,  the  state,  politics,  society,  the  eager  life  of  man 
among  men,  confessedly  belong  to  this  world.  They  are 
relations  which,  in  their  present  form,  seem  finite  and  tem- 
porary. No  wonder  that  we  despise  them  ;  no  wonder  that, 


The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  7 

with  all  our  contempt  for  tKe  monkery  of  old,  we  are  of  the 
monk's  own  spirit  still,  living  each  of  us  in  his  cell,  only  a 
little  wider  than  once,  and  with  glass  doors  through  which 
we  may  look  at  a  little  of  the  world.  A  great  deal  of  secu- 
lar teaching  confirms  people  in  these  false  ideas. 

Very  prevalent  still  is  the  mistake  which  the  political 
philosophy  of  a  crude  age  bequeathed  us,  of  society  and  the 
state  as  arbitrary  creations/  not  attaching  to  man  in  a  con- 
dition of  nature,  but  artificially  fadged  on  later.  Nothing 
could  be  shallower  than  this  theory ;  nothing  more  contra- 
dictory to  common  sense  or  history.  Very  deep,  when  un- 
derstood rightly,  is  that  thought  of  the  Old  Testament  that 
society  was  instituted  by  God  himself,  who  deemed  it  "  not 
good  for  man  to  be  alone  " — a  sentence  whose  main  refer- 
ence is  not  to  the  single  family,  but  to  the  greater  family  of 
mankind.  It  means  that  the  origination  of  the  social  state 
is  no  less  than  the  production  of  man  himself,  one  of  the 
nodes,  ganglia,  or  starting-points  in  the  evolution  of  the 
universe.  In  the  doctrine  of  man  as  a  political  animal 
Moses  anticipates  Aristotle,  as  Aristotle  anticipates  modern 
sociology. 

The  New  Testament  utters  the  same  thought  when  it 
says  that  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God ;  not  the 
special  type  of  civil  rule  which  happens  to  exist  at  any 
given  time — republic,  aristocracy  or  monarchy — for  each  of 
these  is  compatible  with  the  thought ;  but  the  essential 
powers  of  government,  which  any  of  these  forms  of  polity 
must  use  in  order  to  do  its  work. 

Kindred  is  the  error  of  supposing  that  the  social  organism 
exists  simply  for  the  sake  of  the  individual.  Even  were 
that  true,  social  order  would  be  very  precious,  for  one  could 
still  point  out  that  only  through  others  can  you  or  your 
neighbor  attain  the  development  worthy  of  a  man.  Still, 
the  notion  of  the  social  body  as  important  instrumentally 
and  no  otherwise  always  lowers  public  spirit.  Society  is  in 
part  an  end  in  itself.  Man  is  greater  and  more  glorious 
than  any  man.  Final  humanity  is  to  be  a  kingdom,  not 
simply  a  lot  of  perfected  individuals.  The  totality  of  hu- 
man relations,  as  a  totality,  is  a  splendid  product,  worthy  of 
Almighty  effort.  Far  from  being  accidental,  mere  scaffold- 
ing or  instrumentality,  it  is  the  innermost,  essential  part  of 
creation,  destined  to  stand  forever. 

What,  then,  is  the  gospel  for  the  day?  It  is  this — that 
we  need  a  larger,  heartier  recognition  of  men's  dependence 


8  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit. 

upon  one  another,  and  of  the  moral  and  religious  duties 
springing  out  of  this  close  relationship.  As  no  man  can 
live  to  himself,  so  none  ought  to  wish  to  do  so.  We  are 
members  one  of  another,  and  should  so  regard  ourselves. 
If  one  suffers,  all  are  hurt.  The  true  weal  of  one  is  a  bless- 
ing to  the  rest. 

Men  pride  themselves  upon  family,  blood,  estate.  You 
scorn  to  associate  with  so-and-so  because  he  is  of  plebeian 
stock.  Friend,  in  ten  generations  your  blood  will  flow  in 
the  very  same  veins  with  his,  and  in  less  time  than  that  de- 
scendants of  yours  will  be  serving  descendants  of  his  for 
wages.  With  absolute  literalness  is  it  true  that  men  are 
made  out  of  one  blood  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth. 

The  water  which  supplies  the  power  for  the  new  mills  at 
Kearney,  Nebraska,  has  a  peculiar  source.  As  you  follow  it 
up-stream,  all  at  once  the  canal  ends,  and  you  wonder  how 
on  earth  it  is  kept  continually  full.  No  lakes  or  ponds  ap- 
pear in  the  vicinity,  yet,  summer  and  winter  alike,  that 
mighty  tide  sweeps  forward  with  steady  volume.  Travelers 
have  journeyed  thousands  of  miles  to  see  this  supposed  freak 
of  nature.  But  to  the  geologist  it  is  no  mystery.  The  canal 
simply  unearths  waters  of  the  distant  Platte  Eiver,  which 
are  now  known  to  course  underground  far  on  both  sides  of 
the  visible  channel.  Canal  and  river  seem  diverse,  yet  are 
in  fact  but  one  stream  in  two  parts,  starting  up  in  the 
eternal  snows  above,  and  meeting  again  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Kearney  flume,  to  roll  on  together  down  to  the  infinite  sea. 
Even  so  it  is  with  your  blood  and  that  of  the  poor  pariah 
whom  you  spurn  from  your  door. 

The  operative  in  yon  cotton  factory,  if  asked  why  he  can 
earn,  say,  two  dollars  a  day,  would  reply  that  it  is  because 
he  has  such  and  such  strength,  skill,  and  fidelity,  making 
reference  to  no  condition  not  inhering  in  himself.  But  look 
closer.  That  he  may  earn  such  wages,  the  factory  must  be 
there,  with  its  owners  and  their  capital.  Builders  of  fac- 
tories and  machinery  must  exist,  with  their  respective  plants 
and  groups  of  workmen,  each  man  in  all  these  groups  being 
bound  in  the  same  meshwork  of  relationships  as  the  opera- 
tive in  question.  There  must,  still  further,  be  men  working 
Southern  cotton-fields,  every  one  dependent  upon  outside  co- 
operation in  this  same  way ;  people  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facture of  implements  for  cotton-raising;  people  building 
and  running  steamboats  and  railways  to  transport  the  vari- 
ous wares  mentioned ;  human  beings  in  all  lands  who  wish 


The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  9 

cotton  fabrics  and  have  means  to  buy  them ;  morality,  cus- 
toms, and  laws  making  traffic  and  possessions  secure ;  and 
preachers,  teachers,  writers,  legislators,  judges,  police,  and 
army,  giving  sustenance  to  laws  and  morals.  Let  any  one 
of  these  conditions  fail,  and  the  forturr,  of  that  workman  is 
lowered,  though  his  powers  and  wishes  were  to  remain  abso- 
lutely the  same. 

Society  is  in  this  same  way  a  co-operator  with  every  one 
in  all  that  he  is  and  does.  What  you  think  you  accomplish 
is  not  wrought  by  you,  but  by  you  environed  and  helped  as 
you  are. 

Intelligently  viewed,  the  purely  political  aspect  of  social 
organization  is  immensely  impressive.  Human  government 
is  a  wonderful  thing — as  complex  and  unfathomable  as  it  is 
indispensable.  Government  is  of  course  much  more  than 
administration.  The  Legislature  and  the  Executive  together 
are  far  from  comprising  the  Government.  The  constitution 
must  be  reckoned  in,  and  the  courts,  the  great  body  of  laws, 
customary  and  statute,  the  imposing  array  of  legal  maxims, 
traditions,  and  decisions,  and,  not  least,  the  morality  and 
political  genius  of  the  people,  disposing  them  to  law,  order, 
and  united  action.  All  this  in  effect  goes  to  make  up  gov- 
ernment. Now,  when  a  social-political  structure  of  this  sort, 
such  a  mighty  sum  of  delicate  relations,  exists  as  the  herit- 
age of  any  people,  whether  they  are  aware  of  it  or  not,  it  is 
about  the  most  precious  possession  which  can  possibly  be 
theirs.  The  greatest  earthly  gift  God  can  bestow  on  any  of 
us  is  that  of  being  born  into  a  civilized  community.  All 
that  you  possess,  whether  of  mental  or  of  material  stores, 
beyond  what  would  be  yours  had  you  always  lived  in  Cen- 
tral Africa,  is  due  to  society.  It  measures  what  other  men 
are  to  you,  not  as  so  many  individuals,  but  as  men  organic- 
ally related.  It  is  estimated  that  through  this  co-operation 
and  the  consequent  amassing  of  wealth  one  man  may  to- 
day, through  his  own  efforts,  enjoy  more  satisfaction  than 
he  could  earn  in  ten  centuries  were  he  obliged  to  begin  and 
work  without  such  aid. 

We  are  more  apt  to  value  social  organizations  in  general 
than  we  are  its  authoritative  aspect,  referred  to  already  as 
government  But  government  too  is  invaluable.  A  very 
poor  government  over  a  state  is  an  infinite  blessing  com- 
pared with  anarchy.  What  thoughtful  citizen  of  the  United 
States  has  not  again  and  again  thanked  God  that  we  are  not 
as  Central  and  South  America  in  this  respect? 


10  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit. 

Nor  will  government  ever  become  unnecessary.  The  well- 
meaning  reformer  who  wishes  and  expects  to  reduce  it  to 
mere  business  administration,  taking  from  it  its  political 
character  and  every  element  of  authority,  is  laboring  under 
a  delusion.  Some  power  of  coercion  will  always  have  to  be 
kept  up  among  men,  not  because  there  will  forever  be 
wicked  ones  in  their  number,  for  we  hope  that  all  may  by 
and  by  be  converted,  but  because  men  will  never  cease  to 
be  finite  in  wisdom.  The  best  men,  just  because  they  are 
good,  it  may  be,  will  quarrel  over  their  supposed  rights, 
stopping  the  wheels  of  industry.  There  must  be  the  right, 
if  necessary,  to  coerce  them  to  break  such  a  deadlock. 

And,  further,  these  infinitely  valuable  treasures — society 
and  the  state — are  not  the  creatures  of  a  day,  but  of  all  time. 
They  are  not  century  plants :  it  takes  millenniums  to  bring 
them  to  blossom.  No  people  by  itself  ever  created  its  gov- 
ernment in  the  large  sense  we  have  indicated.  As  Mr. 
Spencer  has  well  pointed  out,  while  the  materials  and  in- 
strumentalities of  government  are  of  individual  origin,  its 
structure  as  a  whole,  and  its  final  effects,  are  due  to  a  higher 
intelligence. 

We  glory — no  man  living  more  than  I — in  Washington, 
Franklin,  and  the  other  founders  of  our  Constitution ;  but 
they  did  not  originate  this  nation.  They  started  with  a 
civic  order  which  already  had  its  foundations.  The  Eng- 
lish Constitution  and  a  century  of  rich  political  develop- 
ment in  these  colonies  were  back  of  them.  No  more  did  the 
barons  of  the  Great  Charter  found  the  English  state.  They 
too  built  upon  old  substructures,  particularly  upon  a  very 
positive  tradition  of  free  manhood,  which  hailed  from  the 
German  forest. 

Just  so  touching  other  elements  of  our  civilization.  Lit- 
tle of  it  is  new  save  in  setting.  Its  roots  run  back  through 
ages.  We  have  the  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood  from 
Jesus  Christ,  systematic  education  and  aesthetics  from 
Greece,  ecclesiastical  organization  and  the  best  parts  of 
our  municipal  law  from  secular  Rome,  international  law 
from  the  papacy,  navigation  partly  from  the  Phoenicians, 
partly  from  the  Norsemen,  rhyme  and  the  pointed  arch  per- 
haps from  the  Arabs,  the  brick  from  Assyria,  and  the  bar- 
rel from  Phoenicia.  Thus  has  humanity  swept  onward 
through  the  ages  past,  every  people  and  century,  from 
hoary,  prehistoric  antiquity  down,  contributing  its  peculiar 
product  to  make  us  what  we  are  to-day. 


The  Duty  of  a  Pullic  Spirit.  11 

From  this  point  of  view  it  is  easier  than  when  we  began 
to  understand  the  truth  that  the  present  social  body  is  no 
individual's  work  ;  that  in  bringing  it  into  beiifg  men  have 
for  the  most  part  wrought  as  instruments,  like  coral  insects 
building  their  reefs,  not  as  agents,  with  clear  thought  of  the 
end  to  be  attained. 

But  that  society  has  been  thus  far,  as  it  were,  mechanically 
evolved,  does  not  imply  that  it  is  always  to  grow  in  that  way. 
Just  as  the  appearance  of  the  j)ower  of  abstract  thought  was 
a  turning-point  in  evolution  in  general,  so  now,  in  social 
evolution,  we  are  at  a  turning-point,  which  is  characterized 
by  the  application  of  conscious  thought  to  the  direction  of 
society.  Spite  of  ourselves,  we  as  individuals  are  to  be  par- 
ticipants in  social  development,  to  make  or  to  mar.  We 
may  do  our  part  in  a  half-conscious,  listless,  and  slovenly 
way,  rendering  human  society  a  clog  to  life,  or  conscious  of 
our  calling  as  partners  with  the  divine,  so  as  to  render  life  in- 
creasingly rational  and  blessed.  More  than  ever  manifest  in 
pur  day  is  the  need  of  a  conscious  human  guidance  to  society 
in  its  evolution.  As  the  world  grows  older,  the  Great  Ruler 
above  more  and  more  takes  man  into  his  counsel  in  directing 
it.  Idle  trust  in  God  and  in  the  so-called  natural  laws  of  social 
growth  was  once  not  so  unsafe ;  but  now,  as  population  con- 
denses, men's  life  together  requires  increased  thoughtfulness 
on  the  part  of  men  themselves.  Angry  problems  arise  that 
once  had  no  existence.  They  will  not  down,  nor  will  they 
solve  themselves.  If  given  efforts  to  reform,  shape,  and 
manage  society  suffer  shipwreck,  the  proper  inference  is  not 
that  a  let-alone  policy  is  best,  but  that  we  need  in  this  field 
still  deeper  study  and  a  more  consummate  art. 

It  is  a  dreadful  but  quite  necessary  reflection  that  these 
inestimable  gifts  may  be  lost.  The  best  government  on 
earth  may  fall ;  civilization  itself  may  suffer  eclipse.  Egypt 
was;  Athens  was;  Rome  was.  Will  our  beloved  America 
continue  to  tread  the  exalted  road  which  has  witnessed  her 
career  thus  far,  or  is  she  one  day  to  halt  in  her  mighty  march 
and  then  droop  and  perish  like  all  the  republics  before  her  ? 

Such  a  question  is  forced  upon  one  scanning  certain  un- 
social and  anarchic  tendencies,  in  word,  deed,  and  attitude, 
which  obtrude  themselves  upon  our  notice  in  these  days. 
You  will  doubtless  expect  me  to  mention  as  foremost  among 
these  the  lawlessness  of  ignorant  immigrants.  Not  at  all. 
Head  and  front  of  all  our  dangers  in  this  kind  is  the  apathy 
among  our  best  people  toward  social  and  political  obliga- 


12  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit. 

tions.  Mark,  I  do  not  name  political  obligations  alone.  It 
is  not  enough  for  all  to  attend  caucuses  and  vote,  helpful  as 
that  might  be.  We  need  an  intenser  spirit  of  co-operation 
in  everything  that  concerns  our  united  life.  Public  jobs, 
intended  to  rob  us  all,  we  of  course  reprobate.  But  there  is 
a  narrow  spirit  in  conducting  legitimate  business,  which, 
though  it  may  perhaps  help  you  to  become  rich,  desperately 
hinders  the  public  good.  Trades-unions  often  plan  to  ad- 
vantage their  members,  ignoring  worthy  men  outside,  and 
utterly  regardless  of  the  community's  weal.  Any  body  of 
human  beings  needs  an  immense  amount  of  general  work 
for  which  money  or  political  preferment  does  not  and  could 
not  pay.  Too  few  are  the  men  and  women  willing  to  en- 
gage in  it.  It  is  a  shame  that  so  many  of  our  fellow-citizens 
shirk  jury-duty,  for  instance,  availing  themselves  of  every 
possible  excuse,  often  adding  insult  to  injury  by  ridiculing 
the  jury  system  and  cursing  the  courts  for  the  defeat  of 
justice.  To  cheat  the  assessor  or  the  tax  collector  many 
think  well-nigh  a  virtue.  Can  such  people  remember  that 
every  cent  they  escape  paying  must  come  out  of  some  one, 
and  that  widows,  orphans,  and  the  poor  are  surest  to  suffer 
from  their  fraud  ? 

Unmeasured  time  and  toil  have  to  be  spent  by  many, 
wholly  without  pecuniary  return,  in  the  work  of  institutions 
lacking  which  no  community  can  continue  civilized.  Just 
about  us,  for  instance,  there  are  the  city  government  and 
school  committee,  the  directors  of  banks,  savings  banks,  and 
other  financial  corporations,  of  hospitals  and  infirmaries, 
various  State  commissions,  and  the  Board  of  Education,  of 
Charities  and  Corrections,  of  Health,  and  many  others,  to 
say  nothing  of  orphans'  guardians,  or  of  care  for  church  and 
fraternity  ^nterests.  Gigantic  is  the  labor  which  all  these 
entail ;  priceless  is  the  good  they  do. 

Well  have  I  known  business  men  and  lawyers,  after  pass- 
ing the  day  in  the  confining  work  of  office,  counting-room, 
or  store,  to  bend  at  night  over  the  accounts  of  some  poor- 
fund,  in  which  they  had  no  earthly  interest  save  that 
prompted  by  human  kindness,  and  spending  their  hours 
and  their  best  talents  in  hard  figuring  to  save  all  the  pen- 
nies for  the  unfortunates  needing  them — carrying  to  this 
work  the  same  rigorous  methods  which  they  would  have 
used  had  they  expected  it  to  win  them  millions. 

Tasks  of  all  these  sorts  have  to  be  done  or  society  goes 
to  pieces ;  and  he  who  will  not  participate  in  them  when 


The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  13 

necessary  is,  negatively  if  in  no  worse  sense,  an  anar- 
chist. (" 

Another  set  of  anarchists  are  those  who  incessantly  decry 
all  efforts  at  social  reform,  maintaining  that  the  general 
welfare  can  never  by  any  possibility  be  much  if  any  greater 
than  it  is.  Certainly,  a  vast  deal  of  evil  is  abroad,  and  no 
one  can  say  that  the  necessity  of  it  is  self-evident.  Not  till 
all  possible  plans  of  reform  have  been  tried  and  have  failed 
ought  one  to  despair  of  the  state  ;  and  to  preach  despair  be- 
fore that  bespeaks  a  bad  spirit.  Criticism  is  right  and  a 
duty.  We  are  not  called  to  praise  movements  which  we  are 
sure  ought  to  be  condemned.  But  indiscriminate  condem- 
nation, always  to  find  fault  when  men  are  trying  to  mend 
wrongs,  is  not  criticism  but  the  death  of  it.  We  must  of 
course  prove  all  things,  but  let  us  not  fail  to  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good.  If  it  is  a  sin  to  call  evil  good,  it  is  surely  no 
less  so  to  call  good  evil. 

Anarchic  in  its  eifect  is  it  also  when  you  impeach  the 
motives  or  deny  the  patriotism  of  immense  classes  of  citi- 
zens. We  should  distinguish  sharply  between  an  organiza- 
tion and  its  members.  You  have  a  perfect  right  to  distrust 
the  principles  of  a  political  party,  but  only  bigots  can  doubt 
the  motives  of  a  party's  entire  membership.  To  denounce 
as  disloyal  the  members  of  a  political  sect  which  may  at  any 
time  be  in  a  majority,  is  virtually  to  despair  of  the  state,  and 
that  is  next  door  to  treason. 

The  same  of  great  ecclesiastical  or  benevolent  fraternities. 
Their  creeds  and  platforms  may  contain  much  that  is  false, 
and  all  dubious  utterances  here  as  elsewhere  should  be  dis- 
cussed with  perfect  freedom.  The  bodies  themselves  may 
work  great  evil,  so  that  one  may  wish  them  broken  up  and 
use  all  his  influence  to  that  end ;  but  it  is  a  different  and 
much  graver  matter  to  insinuate  that  they  contain  no  good 
men. 

Doctrines  are  daily  taught  in  the  name  of  politics,  phi- 
lanthropy, and  religion  which,  could  they  be  carried  out, 
would  be  the  death  of  all  human  hopes ;  and  for  the  time 
many  accept  these  doctrines  as  true.  But  they  can  never 
be  carried  out,  and  should  effort  be  made  to  that  end,  so 
soon  as  their  real  nature  appeared,  multitudes  of  their  most 
ardent  adherents  now  would  turn  their  bitterest  foes.  That 
men  profess  evil  tenets,  or  even  follow  vicious  leaders,  is  no 
final  proof  that  the  men  themselves  are  bad. 

The  point  is  not  that  sweeping  criticism,  the  impeach- 


14  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit. 

ment  of  whole  classes,  is  an  error  of  judgment.  As  I  said, 
it  is  anarchic.  It  pulls  society  and  the  state  hopelessly 
apart  and  tends  to  subvert  the  best  work  of  past  generations. 
You  can  co-operate  with  your  neighbor,  however  strongly 
you  and  he  are  opposed  in  views,  so  long  as  you  and  he 
trust  one  another's  motives  ;  but  let  that  condition  be  want- 
ing, and  you  feel  yourselves  foes,  held  asunder  by  indomita- 
ble repulsion. 

Anarchism  hardly  less  vicious  than  this  of  vituperating 
all  who  differ  from  you  in  faith  or  in  politics,  is  chargeable 
upon  those  who  regularly  decry  politics  and  public  men. 
That  there  are  venal  people  in  political  places  is  a  sad,  sad 
fact.  When  you  are  sure  of  your  guilty  official  on  valid 
evidence — which  must  be  more  than  the  speech  of  the  street 
— then  condemn  him  and  his  deed  as  you  will,  and  follow 
up  your  sentence  by  voting  against  him  at  the  next  election. 
But  here  also  we  are  apt  to  judge  very  loosely.  We  con- 
demn processes  when  we  ought  to  condemn  only  the  abuse 
of  them,  and  we  too  often  denounce  our  public  servants  in 
the  mass  for  the  faults  of  a  very  few. 

From  much  observation  I  am  satisfied  that  a  very  large 
majority  of  the  men  in  office  in  our  country  mean  well. 
The  villains  are  not  numerous.  Most  who  serve  us  in 
courts,  in  Congress,  in  legislatures,  and  in  the  various  ex- 
ecutive positions,  however  lacking  in  skill,  are  faithful,  pa- 
triotic, industrious  citizens,  toiling  according  to  their  best 
light  for  the  welfare  of  the  rest  of  us.  For  my  part,  I  can 
not  but  admire  the  patience  and  geniality  which  character- 
ize most  of  them.  And,  knowing  the  good  work  they  do 
— with  all  that  is  not  so  good — when  I  think  what  slender 
thanks  they  get,  how  flippantly  we  call  them  fools  and 
knaves,  groaning  when  they  convene  and  cheering  when 
they  adjourn,  I  wonder  that  more  of  them  do  not  turn 
plunderers,  vowing  to  have  the  game  as  they  have  the  name. 

The  crime  of  such  slander  is  so  much  the  greater  in  that 
it  mainly  proceeds  from  people  who  contribute  nothing  but 
speech  toward  the  correction  of  the  abuses,  real  or  alleged, 
which  they  decry.  The  only  sort  of  political  independence 
I  can  admire — and  this  kind  I  admire  greatly — is  that 
which  is  active,  brave,  always  abounding  in  positive  efforts 
for  the  betterment  of  affairs,  efforts  that  are  truly  costly  to 
those  who  make  them.  Words  are  cheap.  Pulmonary  pa- 
triotism, objurgation,  inveighing,  calling  names — these  will 
never  make  parties  or  their  methods  better.  Even  to  adver- 


The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  15 

tise  beautiful  ideals,  unless  you  do  something  to  realize 
them,  will  hardly  render  you  a  public  benefactor,  fit  will 
never  convert  the  world. 

There  are  many  reasons  for  branding  the  wholesale  abuse 
of  public  men  as  anarchism,  among  which  perhaps  the 
strongest  is  that,  more  than  aught  else,  it  precludes  us  from 
getting  the  very  best  men  into  office.  This  does  not,  how- 
ever— and  here  we  come  upon  another  anarchic  habit  of  our 
time — render  it  right  for  good  citizens  to  decline  office. 
No  more  useful  career  is  possible  for  good  men  in  this  dis- 
tressed age  of  ours  than  is  presented  by  politics  conscien- 
tiously prepared  for  and  pursued.  The  common  thought 
upon  this  point  that  it  is  mean  to  seek  office,  and  a  dis- 
grace to  accept  an  office  unless  it  has  sought  the  man,  is 
wholly  perverse.  We  need  that  hosts  of  thoroughly  able 
and  moral  young  men,  well  trained  in  political  and  social 
science,  including  ethics,  should  set  politics  before  them- 
selves as  their  life-work.  Do  not  sneer  at  professional  poli- 
tics if  only  it  be  of  the  right  kind.  Politics  ought  to  be  a 
profession.  Rightly  followed,  it  would  be  a  noble  one. 

That  these  necessary  changes  may  come  to  pass,  a  more 
elevated  thought  is  required  touching  the  ideal  of  official 
service.  The  notion  of  office  as  a  public  trust  is  much  finer 
than  usually  prevails,  but  it  is  decidedly  not  the  highest. 
Why  should  not  any  of  us  enter  upon  a  public  position 
with  a  truly  philanthropic  thought  in  his  heart,  taking  the 
place  not  merely  to  do  honestly  what  is  expected  of  him, 
but  to  advance  his  community,  his  country,  and  the  race  in 
virtue  and  happiness  ?  I  pray  for  the  day  to  come  when 
every  Saul  will  be  among  the  prophets — rulers  ruling  and 
judges  judging,  under  precisely  the  same  motives  which 
now  lead  enlightened  missionaries  to  enter  their  calling — 
viz.,  passionate  love  for  God  and  for  men. 

To  be  a  public  servant  after  that  fashion  requires  extraor- 
dinary grace.  To  succeed,  one  must  religiously  cultivate 
the  hard  side  of  his  nature,  nerve  to  face  wicked  men, 
kindly  to  endure  lies,  libels,  and  the  whole  contradiction  of 
the  wicked  against  him,  to  have  temper  and  yet  hold  his 
temper,  to  give  blows — of  course  always  in  the  spirit  of  love 
— as  well  as  take  them.  We  are  in  the  age  of  the  Church 
militant,  and  must  fight  if  we  would  reign.  Jehovah  is  a 
man  of  war,  saith  an  old  Scripture.  With  the  froward  he 
will  show  himself  froward.  We  are  to  do  the  same,  in  the 
same  spirit.  We  must,  like  the  Great  Nazarene,  know  what 


16  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit. 

is  in  men.  The  face  which  Jesus  Christ  wears  in  the  won- 
derful picture  of  Titian's,  the  Tribute  Money — betraying 
perfect  worldly  wisdom  and  firmness,  coupled  with  all 
heavenly  love — the  serpent's  cunning  with  the  dove's  inno- 
cence— that  face  speaks  volumes  for  the  sort  of  virtue  I 
here  commend. 

But  the  most  dangerous  and  reprehensible  anarchy  of 
all  consists  in  debauching  the  ballot,  the  purity  of  which 
is  vital  to  a  free  polity  like  ours.  No  Hungarian  gov- 
ernment-haters, no  Italian  Mafia,  no  Irishmen  fresh  from 
the  bog,  are  able  to  do  the  mischief  to  our  American 
institutions  which  is  done  by  reputable  citizens  in  breaking 
down  by  the  use  of  money  the  civic  virtue  of  the  masses. 
There  is  no  excuse  for  this.  The  best  people  who  do  it,  do 
it  thinking  thereby  to  elect  the  right  men  and  secure  good 
laws.  It  will  be  in  vain.  Any  temporary  and  apparent  vic- 
tory gotten  so  must  be  at  the  risk  of  a  fearful  reaction. 
You  can  not  secure  good  laws  by  processes  which  inevitably 
kill  out  the  spirit  of  law.  Lawlessness  must  follow  that 
course  sure  as  night  the  day,  and  those  who  have  thus  sedu- 
lously prepared  for  it  can  not  complain  when  they  find  that 
they  themselves  are  the  victims.  When  they  see  their  prop- 
erty and  their  rights  voted  away,  or  it  may  be  even  their 
houses  burned  down,  they  will  have  themselves  to  thank,  in 
that  they  did  not  trust  our  good  old  republican  principles, 
and  try  as  they  should  have  done  to  educate  the  masses  up 
to  the  level  of  them,  but  deliberately  bribed  the  ignorant 
and  the  immoral,  not  to  become  good  citizens,  but  to  be  and 
continue  law-breakers  and  immoral.  If  the  time  shall  ever 
come  when  free  government,  when  government  by  the  peo- 
ple, has  to  be  relinquished  in  this  goodly  land  for  the 
tyranny  of  monarchy  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  worse  tyranny 
of  a  mob  on  the  other,  the  guilt  will  lie  mainly  at  the  doors 
of  those,  high  and  low,  who,  knowing  better,  have,  with 
money,  directly  or  indirectly  helped  to  eradicate  in  igno- 
rant voters  their  already  too  slender  sense  of  political 
duty. 

I  take  it  to  be  the  great  obligation  of  the  hour  to  cultivate 
a  conscientious  secularism,  a  Christian  worldliness,  a  right- 
eous, ardent  zeal  for  society  and  state,  that  shall  devote 
each  of  us,  for  weal  or  woe,  for  life  or  death,  to  his  fellow- 
men,  not  alone  as  so  many  individuals,  with  characters  to 
be  developed,  but  as  a  brotherhood,  a  society,  a  nation,  sus- 
ceptible of  infinite  development  in  all  high  forms  of  weal. 


The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  17 

We  need  public  spirit  in  ourselves,  and  the  purpose  and 
power  to  evoke  the  same  in  others. 

When  Admiral  Foote,  in  Eastern  waters,  invited  a  hea- 
then prince  to  dine  with  him  on  his  flagship,  and  himself 
said  grace,  the  heathen  remarked :  "  That  is  what  the  mis- 
sionaries do."  "  Well,"  said  the  gruff  but  godly  admiral, 
"  I,  too,  am  a  missionary." 

I  would  that  in  matters  of  our  community  life  we  might 
all  be  missionaries. 

I  honor  the  religious  missionary  who  goes  among  the 
heathen  to  acquaint  them  with  those  nobler  views  of  life 
which  it  is  our  good  fortune  to  have  come  by  earlier  than 
the  peoples  of  Central  Africa  or  East  Asia ;  nor  can  I  ac- 
count as  other  than  shallow  the  people  who  sneer  at  the 
work,  splendid  in  the  main,  which  missionaries  are  at  this 
moment  accomplishing  in  the  civilization  of  our  human 
brethren  and  sisters  in  foreign  parts.  Heaven  prosper  their 
efforts. 

I  honor  the  social  missionary,  who,  braving  the  jibes 
and  contumely  of  the  so-called  "  cultivated,"  espouses  the 
cause  of  the  poor,  and,  on  the  platform,  in  the  press,  or  by 
personal  work  among  them,  proves  his  ardent  love  for  un- 
titled  humanity  in  its  struggles  against  forbidding  social 
conditions.  God  bless  every  man  and  woman  in  the  noble 
army  of  those  who  are  doing  this. 

The  world  painfully  needs  two  more  classes  of  mission- 
aries still — social  missionaries  to  the  rich,  and  political  mis- 
sionaries. Where  are  the  young  men  and  women  of  means 
and  leisure  who  will  duly  study  the  social  problems  of  our 
time  and  help  to  their  solution  ?  Where  are  the  consecrated 
sons  and  daughters  of  wealth  ready  to  preach  to  their  peers 
the  obligations  resting  upon  them  ? 

Where  are  the  men  who  will  covet  political  careers  with 
an  evangelical  spirit,  preparing  for,  and  if  possible  entering, 
public  life  with  a  determination  to  make  it  purer  and  more 
efficient,  not  waiting  to  be  asked  and  urged  to  this,  but 
seeking  places  of  trust,  competing  with  selfish  schemers  for 
chances  to  exert  great  power  in  the  capital  affairs  of  men  ? 

May  every  one  who  can  do  good  in  any  of  these  ways  hear 
the  voice  which  searched  the  soul  of  the  youthful  Buddha : 

"  Oh,  thou  that  art  to  save,  thine  hour  is  nigh, 
The  sad  world  waiteth  in  its  misery, 
The  blind  world  stumbleth  on  its  round  of  pain ; 
Rise,  Maya's  Son,  wake,  slumber  not  again ! " 


18  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit. 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

REV.  JOHN  W.  CHAD  WICK  : 

I  wish  first  to  commend  the  genial  optimism  of  the  speaker  and  his 
deprecation  of  party  spirit.  It  is  a  common  mistake  to  confound  party 
spirit  with  public  spirit.  James  Russell  Lowell  was  one  of  those  who  see 
the  distinction.  He  was  pre-eminently  public-spirited,  but  free  from  the 
bias  of  partisanship ;  and  because  he  loved  his  country,  he  "  loathed 
her  public  shame "  of  party  corruption.  With  some,  public  spirit  is 
restricted  to  the  nation  and  not  applied  to  the  city.  In  the  past 
there  has  been  much  civic  pride.  Men  have  thought  of  their  city  as 
having  a  personal  life— as  a  creature  with  a  soul,  to  be  loved,  and  not 
merely  as  so  many  miles  of  streets  and  crowds  of  people.  Historically, 
Brooklyn  has  but  little  to  be  proud  of.  She  has  no  beautiful  public 
buildings  or  great  public  works.  But  not  long  ago  our  city  took  the 
lead  in  civic  government  in  the  United  States,  and  our  people  away 
from  home  were  not  ashamed  to  be  known  as  Brooklynites — they 
ceased  to  sign  their  names  to  hotel  registers  as  from  New  York.  Lack- 
ing history  and  beauty  to  bind  us,  we  can  have  a  high  civic  ideal,  and 
for  that  be  proud  of  our  city.  A  high  development  of  political  moral- 
ity is  better  than  fine  buildings  or  traditions.  Another  point  is  the  re- 
lation of  the  public  life  of  the  citizen  to  his  domestic  life.  We  can  not 
have  noble  and  beautiful  domestic  life  where  there  is  no  public  spirit. 
The  best  home  life  is  reserved  for  those  who  come  to  it  tired  with 
work  for  others  in  the  great  stream  of  life  outside.  An  instance  in 
point  is  the  home  life  of  James  and  Lucretia  Mott,  who  by  their  labors 
in  great  public  causes  gained  strength,  beauty,  and  divineness  of  char- 
acter. We  acquire  new  value  for  each  other  by  devotion  to  large  pub- 
lic ends. 

MR.  JOHN  FRET  WELL  : 

Mr.  Fretwell,  being  introduced  as  an  Englishman,  said:  I  speak 
upon  this  question  not  as  a  foreigner,  but  as  an  American  citizen  of 
English  birth.  For,  after  a  residence  of  nineteen  years  in  this  coun- 
try, I  have  lately  become  a  citizen  in  order  to  encourage  my  fellow- 
countrymen  in  Massachusetts  to  do  likewise,  and  take  part  in  solving 
the  important  political  issues  now  before  the  country.  Mr.  Parke 
Godwin,  at  the  recent  celebration  of  the  anniversary  of  the  settlement 
of  Germantown,  told  the  Germans  that  they  had  a  good  deal  to  forget 


The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  19 

in  coming  to  this  country.  But  he  failed  to  recognize  the  fact  that 
public  spirit  is  not  confined  to  any  one  country.  The  Emperor  of 
Germany  and  the  Queen  of  England  are  doubtless  as  public-spirited 
as  any  one  in  America.  If  the  common  people  are  not,  they  will 
doubtless  become  so  as  their  interests  in  the  government  are  extended ; 
though  we  are  warned  by  the  terrible  example  of  the  French  Republic, 
seeking  alliance  with  the  basest  elements,  that  we  must  not  cast  off  our 
old  institutions  too  quickly.  Europe  can  to-day  furnish  us  with  some 
good  object-lessons.  For  examples  of  the  best  municipal  government 
we  do  not  look  to  Tammany-ridden  New  York,  or  to  San  Francisco 
with  its  "  boss,"  but  to  the  German  Berlin  and  the  English  London. 
Mr.  Fretwell  deprecated  the  interference  with  individual  liberty  by 
such  laws  as  the  prohibitory  liquor  law,  saying  that  it  is  openly  dis- 
regarded in  communities  where  it  has  been  placed  upon  the  statute 
books — even  by  officials  whose  duty  it  is  to  enforce  it ;  and  the  open 
disregard  of  one  law  by  a  man  in  public  life  leads  other  citizens  to 
think  they  can  break  the  laws  with  impunity.  Legislation  of  this 
kind  tends  to  undermine  a  genuine  public  spirit. 

DR.  ANDREWS  replied  briefly,  emphasizing  some  of  the  points  which 
he  had  made  in  his  address. 


THE  STUDY 
OF  APPLIED  SOCIOLOGY 


BY 

ROBERT  G.  ECCLES,  M.  D. 

AUTHOR  OF  THE  EVOLUTION   OP  MIND,  THE   RELATIVITY   OF  KNOWLEDGE,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Spencer's  The  Study  of  Sociology ;  Bascom's  Sociology ;  Ward's 
Dynamic  Sociology ;  Bagehot's  Physics  and  Politics  ;  Harris's  Method 
of  Study  of  Social  Science,  in  Journal  of  the  American  Association  of 
Social  Science,  1879 ;  Giddings's  Province  of  Sociology,  in  Annals  of 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  1890 ;  Atkinson's 
The  Study  of  Politics;  Fronde's  Short  Studies  in  Great  Subjects  (The 
Science  of  History  and  The  Cat's  Pilgrimage) ;  Lubbock's  Prehistoric 
Times. 


THE   STUDY  OF   APPLIED   SOCIOLOGY. 

BY  R.  G.  ECCLES,  M.  D. 
CAN  WE  HAVE  A  SCIENCE  OF  SOCIETY? 

i 

MANY  intelligent  persons  have  seriously  questioned  the 
possibility  of  our  being  able  to  construct  a  science  out  of  the 
material  at  our  command  as  found  in  the  history  of  human 
experience.  Froude,  the  historian,  is  a  notable  example  of 
this  kind  of  skeptic.  Of  course,  if  such  a  science  can  not  be 
constructed,  the  subject  is  worth  no  further  attention.  Is 
there,  then,  any  rational  hope  of  our  gaining  knowledge  of 
society  susceptible  of  systematic  classification?  Are  there 
discoverable  natural  laws  underlying  the  growth  of  nations 
and  the  collective  deeds  of  men  ?  Are  the  forces  that  take 
part  in  this  growth  and  in  these  movements  interchange- 
able with  the  other  forces  of  Nature  ?  Can  we  ever  hope  to 
be  able  to  make  an  approximate  estimate  of  quantity  re- 
garding the  same  ?  If  miracles  and  special  providences  step 
in  to  overturn  the  causal  continuity  and  introduce  new 
additions  of  freshly  created  energy,  such  a  science  is  an 
absurdity.  If  at  every  fresh  act  of  human  will  the  conser- 
vation of  energy  is  violated,  there  can  be  nothing  calculable, 
knowable,  or  classifiable.  Creative  caprice  and  prescient 
knowledge  are  irreconcilable  things.  This  being  the  case, 
the  attitude  every  individual  will  assume  must  depend  upon 
his  philosophical  convictions  or  theological  belief. 

Mr.  Froude  asks  if  we  can  imagine  a  science  that  would 
have  foretold  Mohammedanism,  Buddhism,  Mormonism,  or 
Christianity,  or  of  one  that  could  discover  the  lost  secret 
of  the  founding  of  Rome.  He  says:  "The  greatest  of 
Roman  thinkers,  gazing  mournfully  at  the  seething  mass  of 
moral  putrefaction  around  him,  detected  and  deigned  to 
notice  among  its  elements  a  certain  detestable  superstition, 
so  he  called  it,  rising  up  amid  the  offscouring  of  the  Jews, 
which  was  named  Christianity,"  and  then  asks  if  Tacitus 
"  could  have  looked  forward  nine  centuries  to  the  Rome  of 
Gregory  VIII  and  beheld  the  representative  of  the  Caesars 
holding  the  stirrup  of  the  pontiff  of  that  vile  and  execrated 
3 


24  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

sect,"  whether  "  the  spectacle  would  have  appeared  to  him 
the  fulfillment  of  a  rational  expectation  or  an  intelligible 
result  of  the  causes  in  operation  around  him."  (Short 
Studies  in  Great  Subjects — The  Science  of  History.) 

The  power  of  prevision  in  every  science  is  limited.  The 
unexpected  occurs  in  them  all.  If  Froude's  objections  are 
insuperable  barriers  to  the  erection  of  a  science  of  sociology, 
they  can  find  their  counterparts  in  physics,  chemistry,  and 
biology,  so  that  these  too  should  be  impossible.  Was  the 
production  of  electric  telegraphs,  telephones,  and  electric 
motors  from  the  simple  force  developed  by  rubbing  amber 
the  fulfillment  of  any  rational  expectation?  Are  the  brill- 
iant colors  now  imparted  to  silks  and  woolens  by  aniline 
dyes  and  the  sweet  taste  of  saccharine  probable  products  of 
the  contents  of  black  coal-tar?  What  biologist  would  ever 
have  dreamed  that  Anacharis  canadensis,  so  innocent  of 
harm  at  home,  should,  on  introduction  to  European  waters, 
exterminate  native  water-plants  there  and  block  up  navi- 
gable streams  ?  There  is  no  department  of  inductive  science 
where,  prior  to  the  acquisition  of  experience  of  a  given  type, 
prevision  concerning  that  type  is  possible.  In  every  such 
case  the  unexpected  is  sure  to  occur. 

THE  DATA  OF  SOCIOLOGY. 

That  society  is  an  orderly  growth,  subject  to  conditions 
that  are  often  predictable  and  obeying  determinable,  natural 
laws,  is  manifest  by  a  study  of  its  present  structure  and  a 
comparison  with  its  past.  The  highly  complex  division  of 
labor  now  apparent  is  found  to  steadily  diminish  in  complex- 
ity backward  in  time ;  and  the  arrested  forms  from  nomadic 
savagery,  through  barbarism  and  states  of  semi-civilization 
up  to  our  present  condition,  indicate  this  same  growth  and 
obedience  to  the  law  of  evolution.  The  growths  of  language, 
customs,  and  legislation  all  show  effects  following  distinctly 
traceable  causes.  No  element  of  caprice  can  be  found  break- 
ing the  chain  or  upsetting  the  orderly  sequence. 

In  his  unsocial,  wandering  life  early  man  was  at  the 
mercy  of  his  environment.  Each  successive  step  of  associa- 
tive co-operation  lent  him  a  new  power  to  overcome  his 
foes.  Those  that  refused  to  co-operate,  in  regions  where 
single-handed  they  were  unable  to  cope  with  their  adversa- 
ries, necessarily  became  exterminated.  Cohesions  that  were 
non-adapted  after  a  time  would  either  split  up  again  or  be 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  25 

destroyed  by  internal  dissension.  Natural  selection  was 
thus  constantly  at  work,  both  in  the  environments  of  societies 
and  within  their  structures,  killing  out  the  unfit  and  pre- 
serving the  fit.  The  more  profound  and  thoroughly  organ- 
ized the  internal  adaptations  became,  the  more  certain  was 
the  survival  of  the  society.  The  larger  the  number  of  per- 
sons that  could  establish  a  thoroughgoing  harmony  among 
themselves,  the  more  formidable  they  became  to  their  outer 
foes  and  the  greater  became  the  happiness  among  them- 
selves. The  greater  the  division  of  labor,  the  better  the 
work  was  done  and  the  more  satisfactory  the  results  in  the 
total.  The  lesson  of  all  time,  everywhere  enforced,  is  that  it 
is  better  to  do  one  thing  well  than  a  hundred  things  badly ; 
and  if  an  individual  or  class  tries  to  do  a  hundred  things 
instead  of  one,  they  are  sure  to  be  done  badly.  Progress  is 
always  from  diffusion  of  function  to  centralization  of  func- 
tion, and  retrogression  from  limitation  to  diffusion.  When- 
ever any  one  advocates  the  taking  of  any  duty  from  the  few 
and  giving  it  to  the  many,  he  is  advocating  retrogression. 
All  functioning  began  in  diffusion,  and  with  the  flight  of 
time  has  ever  been  becoming  more  and  more  restricted  save 
where  stagnation,  disease,  and  death  were  entering. 

To  build  up  a  science  of  society  we  must  study  social 
growth  and  the  causes  that  conspire  to  bring  it  about.  We 
will  thus  discover  what  kinds  of  acts  are  desirable  and  what 
injurious.  We  will  observe  that  some  movements  lead  in- 
evitably to  strength,  stability,  and  happiness,  while  others 
with  equal  certainty  bring  weakness,  discomfort,  and  de- 
struction. Such  knowledge,  once  acquired,  will  enable  its 
possessors  to  foresee  the  probable  consequences  of  movements 
about  to  be  made  and  enable  them  to  discriminate  between 
practicable  and  Utopian  ideas.  It  will  show  them  that 
every  legislative  act  is  either  in  agreement  with  the  normal 
direction  of  growth  or  against  it,  and  therefore  to  be  com- 
mended or  condemned  by  a  far-seeing  and  accurate  standard 
rather  than  by  a  narrow  and  unreliable  one.  It  will  teach 
them  that  social  laws  are  as  fixed  and  inviolable  as  gravity, 
and  that  therefore  legislative  bodies,  instead  of  trying  to 
"  make  "  laws,  should  gather  together  facts  and,  from  a  study 
of  these,  discover  them. 

In  this,  as  in  every  other  science,  before  any  attempt  can 
be  made  at  reaching  conclusions  the  phenomena  must  be 
mastered  in  detail.  The  building  material  of  society  must 
be  critically  examined  and  the  forces  capable  of  playing 


26  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

upon  it  measured  as  to  quantity  and  quality.  An  engineer 
who  should  attempt  to  build  a  Brooklyn  Bridge  without  a 
knowledge  of  steel  cables,  the  strain  they  are  capable  of 
bearing,  and  the  forces  they  must  resist,  could  not  be  ex- 
pected to  give  us  good  results.  The  man  who  aspires  to  a 
scientific  study  of  society  must  know  the  stuff  out  of  which 
society  is  built,  through  and  through.  He  must  know 
every  human  point  of  weakness  and  strength.  Physiologi- 
cal psychology  he  must  be  master  of.  The  strength  and 
weakness  of  every  prejudice  of  importance,  the  power  of 
every  superstition,  the  amount  of  control  logic  can  exert  on 
different  classes,  the  effect  and  persistence  of  habits  ac- 
quired and  hereditary,  the  biases  of  class,  education,  and 
patriotism,  the  physiological  and  educational  basis  of  moral- 
ity, and  the  laws  of  biological  adaptation,  must  be  known. 
He  must  be  able  to  gauge  the  probable  volume  of  passion, 
fear,  or  enthusiasm  likely  to  be  let  loose  by  certain  acts 
or  doctrines.  He  must  know  something  of  the  structure 
of  the  nervous  system,  must  have  learned  how  we  have 
acq aired  the  sympathetic  and  moral  natures  we  possess, 
must  be  able  to  perceive  the  different  capacities  of  differ- 
ent races  and  nationalities  as  well  as  the  most  pronounced 
mental  and  physical  differences  in  the  sexes.  Without 
knowing  how  man  came  to  be  moral,  he  would  be  likely  to 
defend  systems  that  would  reverse  the  nervous  conditions 
that  have  made  us  moral,  and  so  lead  the  race  toward  a  uni- 
versal immorality.  There  are  conditions  that  must  be  obeyed 
or  life  is  impossible ;  there  are  others  that  must  be  obeyed 
or  society  is  impossible,  and  there  are  still  others  that  make 
certain  forms  of  society  possible.  There  are  individuals 
whose  natures  and  training  forbid  their  harmonizing  with 
certain  forms  of  society.  Every  well-established  society  is 
the  form  of  greatest  stability  for  the  units  composing  it.  To 
alter  such  societies  would  require  a  corresponding  alteration 
in  the  dispositions  and  training  of  its  units.  No  one  would 
think  of  trying  to  build  a  perpendicular  wall  of  cannon-balls. 
No  one  should  think  of  trying  to  build  a  smooth  and  perpen- 
dicular social  structure  from  the  rough  cobble-stones  of  hu- 
manity. Every  chemist  knows  how  different  are  the  crystals 
which  are  formed  by  different  kinds  of  matter.  They  all  coa- 
lesce in  their  own  distinctive  forms  of  greatest  stability  as  de- 
termined by  the  natures  of  their  molecules.  Societies  are 
built  of  individuals  as  crystals  are  of  molecules,  and  though 
you  tore  them  down  a  thousand  times  with  the  hope  that 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  27 

they  would  come  together  again  according  to  some  precon- 
ceived ideal,  if  they  withstood  the  ordeal  they  would  only 
drop  back  again  and  again  into  the  old  ruts.  With  the 
same  absolute  fidelity  that  this  written  page  has  to  the  pres- 
ent contents  of  my  mind  is  the  present  structure  of  society 
to  its  inherent  forces.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  easily  or  rapidly 
alter  either  the  forces  or  the  individuals. 

HABIT  AND  EDUCATION. 

We  are  all  creatures  of  habit,  and  our  habits  are  usually 
fastened  upon  us  by  education.  Most  things  we  do  and  say 
are  but  part  of  the  mechanical  propulsion  of  social  move- 
ment. Thoughts  and  deeds  that  circumstances  have  forced 
a  frequent  repetition  of  get  woven  into  our  nervous  struct- 
ures as  second  nature.  In  school,  in  the  street,  in  the 
workshop,  at  the  counter,  everywhere  and  throughout  our 
lives,  we  are  directed  and  forced  into  the  fixed  methods  of 
the  social  treadmill.  The  structures  we  receive  at  birth 
have  a  certain  degree  of  mobility  so  that  we  can  be  adapted 
to  the  whole  range  of  permanent  events  within  the  activi- 
ties of  our  race.  A  child  can  not  be  adapted  to  the  life  of  a 
fish,  a  bird,  or  a  monkey.  A  civilized  child  can  not  be 
adapted  to  the  life  of  the  lower  savages.  It  can,  however, 
become  fitted  to  almost  any  form  of  society  from  barbarism 
up  to  the  upper  limit  fixed  by  its  structure.  The  upper 
limit  varies  widely  with  the  inherent  latent  intelligence. 
Adapt  a  child  to  any  form  of  life  within  the  limits  of  its 
inherent  capabilities,  and  on  reaching  manhood  the  power 
to  change  to  other  forms  is  almost  or  entirely  lost.  Children 
take  to  superstitions  or  dogmas  of  the  not  too  distant  past 
because  they  are  on  a  level  with  their  mental  growth.  In 
fact,  they  inherit  a  bias  toAvard  them.  Keep  them  ponder- 
ing on  such  matters  till  age  creeps  on,  and  a  hardened  brain 
will  then  refuse  to  open  up  new  nerve  paths.  Aged  people 
can  not  change  from  the  habits  and  methods  of  thought  of  the 
past  except  within  very  narrow  limits,  in  spite  of  their  ma- 
turity of  thought.  Children  travel  in  the  way  adults  direct, 
not  having  mental  capacity  even  to  conceive  of  new  routes. 
We  can  not  have  wise  and  non-superstitious  children  till 
we  have  wise  and  non-superstitious  adults  to  teach  them. 
We  can  not  have  wise  and  non-superstitious  adults  as  teach- 
ers till  we  have  children  trained  in  wisdom  and  against 
superstition.  The  habits  of  the  past  are  upon  the  teacher, 


28  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

and  he  fastens  them  upon  the  pupil.  Even  where  teachers 
have  broken  the  crust  of  habit,  parents  will  not  tolerate  the 
teaching  to  children  of  things  that  run  counter  to  their  own 
early  education.  The  past  holds  the  present  in  a  grasp  of 
iron.  The  task  which  the  owl  gave  the  cat,  in  Froude's 
Oat's  Pilgrimage,  is  the  puzzle  the  sociologist  has  inces- 
santly laid  before  him.  Pussy  wanted  the  owl  to  tell  her 
how  to  be  happy.  "  Meditate,  0  Cat !  meditate,"  said  the 
owl.  "  From  the  beginning  our  race  have  been  considering 
which  first  existed,  the  owl  or  the  egg.  The  owl  comes 
from  the  egg,  but  likewise  the  egg  from  the  owl.  From 
sunrise  to  sunset  I  ponder  on  it,  0  Cat !  When  I  reflect 
on  the  beauty  of  the  complete  owl,  I  think  that  must 
have  been  first,  as  the  cause  is  greater  than  the  effect. 
When  I  remember  my  own  childhood,  I  incline  the  other 
way." 

All  existing  social  conditions  are  related  to  all  past  social 
conditions  as  is  the  owl  to  the  egg.  Reformers  who  want 
new  types  of  social  birds  often  forget  that  they  have  no  cor- 
responding eggs  to  hatch  them  from.  They  think  they  can 
start  de  novo.  Like  the  owl,  they  believe  that  one  or  other 
must  come  first.  The  fact  is  that  nothing  ever  has  been  or 
ever  can  be  started  in  this  way.  All  of  Nature's  processes 
are  evolutionary.  By  slow  modification  she  steadily  changes 
both  bird  and  egg  till  the  proper  pattern  finally  appears. 
Neither  owl  nor  egg  was  first.  From  the  limitless  depths 
of  time,  egg  and  bird  have  changed  and  changed  in  in- 
finitesimal amounts  until  at  last  from  a  common  pair 
have  come  owls  and  crows,  hawks  and  eagles,  sparrows  and 
mocking-birds.  Do  you  wish  to  see  the  race  freed  from  su- 
perstition ?  Then  help  to  modify  the  egg  being  hatched  in 
the  schoolboy's  mind  by  slightly  modifying  the  bird  that 
lays  it.  Do  not  waste  effort  in  trying  to  develop  a  full- 
fledged  new  and  before  unknown  bird,  for  you  can  not  do  it. 
Do  you  seek  Civil  Service  Reform  ?  Never  expect  a  race  of 
white  blackbirds  to  develop  suddenly  among  black  black- 
birds. Even  if  a  white  sport  should  suddenly  and  apparent- 
ly by  accident  appear,  do  not  hope  for  its  permanence. 
Years  and  years  of  natural  selection  is  the  only  thing  to  rely 
upon.  You  must  have  white  blackbird  eggs  from  white 
blackbirds  before  you  can  hope  for  permanence.  We  hope 
by  magic  to  emancipate  all  from  poverty,  but  the  same  old 
bird  of  poverty  keeps  on  hatching  broods  of  its  own  kind. 
We  try  to  vote  down  professional  politicians  and  put  work- 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  29 

ingmen  in  their  stead,  only  to  find  at  last  that  we   have 
hatched  another  brood  of  professional  politicians. 

Average  man,  like  the  average  material  of  an  owl's  egg,  is 
only  capable  of  producing  corresponding  results.     We  can 
by  patient,  slow,  and  patience-trying  effort  modify,  bit  by 
bit,  but  we  can  make  no  leaps.     The  pain,  the  sorrow,  the 
misery,  the  poverty,  the  hunger,  and  the  slavery  complained 
of  are  the  birds  hatched  from  the  eggs  which  have  been 
laid.     Human  immoralities  are  the  eggs,  misery  and  suffer- 
ing the  birds.     As  rapidly  as  we  are  able  to  modify  selfish- 
ness into  altruism  and  the  desire  for  liquor  into  a  desire  for 
cleanliness,  so  rapidly  will  we  rid  the  world  of  poverty,  but 
in  no  other  way  and  with  no  greater  speed.     Immorality 
produces  poverty,  and  poverty  produces  immorality.     They 
are  related  to  each  other  as  owl  and  egg.     We  can  not  legis- 
late selfishness   or  habits  of  personal  vice  from   men,  and 
as  long  as  these  exist  we  must  endure  their  progeny.     No 
social  paradise  can  be  constructed  from  the  kind  of  beings 
that  at  present  people  the  earth.     We  can  go  on  endeavor- 
ing to  institute  reforms  and  modifying  existing  conditions, 
but  we  must  then  wait  for  the  slow  passage  of  time.     The 
old  proverb  of  "  the  more  haste  the  less  speed  "  is  particu- 
larly applicable  here.     The  methods  of  reformers  are  very 
often  methods  calculated  to  retard  progress  and  lead  retro"- 
gressionward.     The  desire  for  hasty  results  introduces  an 
element  of  impetuosity  that  hinders,  and  their  determina- 
tion to  produce  independent  organizations  is  a  fatal  blunder. 
The  laws  of  social  growth  are  in  antagonism  to  their  ways. 
It  would  be  folly  to  hope  to  rapidly  modify  the  polity  of  the 
earth  by  taking  up  our  abode  in  Mars,  or  to  sway  the  social 
currents  of  the  United  States  by  residing  in  Germany.    You 
might  write,  talk,  and  scold  till  you  were  gray,  and  you 
would  never  get  a  step  nearer  your  destiny.    Whoever  wants 
to  improve  politics  must  begin  and  continue  his  work  within 
the  old  parties,  or  he  can  never  do  it  well.     If  you  seek  to 
advance  religion  properly  you  must  be  a  church  member. 
If  you  want  to  improve  any  society  at  a  maximum  rate  of 
speed  you  must  be  a  member  of  the  same.     Do  you  seek  to 
materially  improve  the  social  condition  of  the  poor,  then 
get  within  touch  of  the  poor  by  associating  with  them.     If 
you  want  to  save  a  soul  from  destruction  you  must  get  into 
heartfelt  sympathy  with  that  soul.    The  secret  of  the  power 
of  the  Irish  people  in  American  politics  lies  in  their  working 
within  one  of  the  great  parties.    Had  they  organized  a  party 


30  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

of  their  own  they  would  have  remained  ciphers  in  national 
affairs.  Freethinkers  imagine  themselves  the  destroyers  of 
superstition  and  conventionalism.  They  are  nothing  of  the 
kind  to  any  great  extent.  Most  of  this  kind  of  work  is  done 
by  the  liberal-minded  men  within  the  Church.  Mugwumps 
do  little  toward  advancing  purer  politics  when  out  of  the 
old  parties.  Progress  is  due  to  the  liberal-minded  men  who 
cling  to  the  organized  forms  of  the  old  parties.  Neither 
eggs  nor  owls  can  be  made  de  novo,  and  you  can  only  mod- 
ify them  toward  higher  forms  by  coming  near  enough  to 
touch  them.  A  great  majority  of  those  who  cling  to  anti- 
quated forms  are  totally  unfit  for  higher.  To  talk  such 
people  into  the  new  order  of  things  does  not  really  cause 
them  to  progress.  The  gain  is  only  superficial  and  appar- 
ent. A  parrot  has  really  made  no  progress  by  being  taught 
to  speak.  It  can  not  understand  its  own  words.  Multi- 
tudes of  people  are  by  education  made  to  imitate  the  parrot. 
Every  teacher  in  a  college  has  often  met  students  that  could 
answer  correctly  all  or  most  of  their  questions,  and  yet  they 
have  been  morally  certain  that  these  same  students  under- 
stood nothing  of  the  principles  and  facts  they  could  so 
glibly  enunciate.  Edison's  phonograph  can  repeat  whole 
sermons  and  the  wisest  sayings  of  sages.  Yet  it  is  utterly 
unconscious  of  the  meaning  of  what  it  is  able  to  say. 
School  children  are  constantly  taking  in  knowledge  as  a 
sponge  does  water,  and  yet  have  no  capacity  fitting  them  to 
really  understand  such  knowledge.  Indeed,  a  very  careful 
examination  would  show  us  that  everybody  does  this  to  some 
extent.  There  are  all  degrees  of  the  habit.  The  best  of  us 
are  often  apt  to  utter  thoughts  that  are  not  ours,  and  quar- 
rel about  opinions  we  have  no  adequate  conception  of.  Our 
ways  of  thinking,  like  the  words  we  use  in  talking,  are  a 
heritage  of  the  race  which,  in  a  few  of  us,  have  been  modi- 
fied by  environment.  Like  the  clothes  we  wear,  our 
thoughts  have  a  definite  pattern  fixed  upon  them  which  we 
dare  not  choose  to  alter.  "When  we  greet  a  friend  with 
"  Good  morning,"  what  do  we  mean  ?  It  seems  a  senseless 
piece  of  jargon.  It  is  a  habit  we  have  been  drilled  into  and 
is  abbreviated  from  "  God  be  with  you  this  morning."  If 
these  are  not  parrot-like  acquired  expressions  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  any.  Most  men  follow  the  religion  of  the 
place  where  they  spend  their  childhood,  instead  of  trying  to 
have  an  independent  opinion  on  such  matters.  Men  and 
women  who  have  been  raised  in  Christian  communities  think 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  31 

as  Christians,  talk  as  Christians,  and  reason  like  Christians, 
even  after  they  have  discarded  the  distinctive  tenets  of 
Christianity.  Those  raised  in  the  Mohammedan  countries 
are  subject  to  all  the  limitations  and  enslaved  by  all  the 
methods  of  the  Mohammedans.  Some  of  us  vainly  imagine 
ourselves  emancipated  from  this  servility,  but  it  is  mere  self- 
delusion.  In  gathering  data  for  sociology  such  facts  must 
receive  due  consideration.  To  expect  a  man  who  has  been 
educated  a  Brahmin  to  reach  the  same  conclusions  from 
the  same  presentation  of  facts  as  one  would  who  had  been 
trained  as  a  Christian,  is  to  look  for  results  that  are  very  un- 
likely ever  to  occur.  It  is  easy  enough,  after  ascertaining 
the  habits  of  thought  of  an  individual  or  race,  to  predict  the 
conclusions  that  may  be  arrived  at  by  them  from  given 
facts,  but  not  before. 

THE  BEARING  OF  STATISTICS  OK  THE  PROBLEM. 

Whatever  our  belief  may  be  concerning  the  power  of  the 
will,  these  facts  of  established  habit  show  pretty  plainly 
that  some  of  our  doings  are  as  automatic  and  predictable  as 
those  of  a  machine.  When  the  statisticians  average  up  the 
multitude,  a  good  deal  of  rather  unexpected  order  is  seen  to 
reside  in  events  that  look  most  capricious.  The  number  of 
absent-minded  people  seems  to  be  a  pretty  constant  one,  and 
the  queer  acts  they  do  during  their  fits  of  abstraction  equally 
as  constant.  We  can  tell  in  advance,  within  a  narrow  margin, 
the  number  of  undirected,  misdirected,  and  imperfectly  di- 
rected letters  that  will  be  mailed  in  a  year.  We  can  foresee 
the  average  number  of  such  that  will  contain  money,  checks, 
and  other  valuables.  We  know  about  how  many  people  will 
commit  suicide  and  how  they  will  do  it.  The  proportion  of 
deaths  to  births  and  to  the  total  population  is  so  steady  a 
quantity  that  an  error  of  the  census-taker  can  be  discovered 
by  a  display  of  vital  statistics.  It  can  not  be  much  of  a  sur- 
prise to  learn  that  a  given  number  of  people  will  consume 
a  given  number  of  hats,  coats,  pantaloons,  or  pairs  of  shoes, 
but  what  can  we  think  of  the  statistics  of  drug  importations 
when  we  learn  that  the  amount  of  physic  used,  of  any  given 
kind,  is  so  constant  that,  with  few  exceptions,  it  can  readily 
be  foretold  from  year  to  year.  Book  publishers,  after  a  little 
experience,  soon  come  to  know  how  large  an  edition  can  be 
consumed  of  a  given  cast  of  novel,  history,  or  work  in  sci- 
ence. The  number  of  crimes  oi  a  given  kind  is  a  pretty 


32  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

constant  one  from  year  to  year  for  the  same  region,  unless  a 
great  social  wave  of  some  kind  comes  along,  when  they  may 
be  expected  to  increase  or  diminish  according  to  the  char- 
acter of  such  change. 

Besides  the  steady  ebb  and  flow  of  predictable  events  of 
the  kinds  enumerated  there  are  others  that  at  first  seem  to 
defy  all  law.  They  come  as  fashions.  The  fashion  once 
begun,  rises  to  a  maximum  and  finally  wanes.  They  come 
and  go  like  contagious  diseases.  There  are  fashions  in  the 
choice  of  method  that  will  be  used  by  suicides  in  destroying 
themselves,  by  murderers  in  how  they  shall  take  the  lives  of 
others  There  are  fashions  in  the  kinds  of  books  that  will 
be  published  and  read,  in  the  kinds  of  plays  that  will  attract 
the  public  to  theatres,  in  the  kinds  of  songs  that  will  be 
sung,  and  in  the  kinds  of  medicines  doctors  will  prescribe 
for  their  patients,  just  as  much  as  there  are  fashions  in  the 
dresses  ladies  wear.  When  these  fashions  appear  it  is  easy 
to  predict  that,  as  a  rule,  conservative  people  will  be  the  last 
to  consider  and  adopt  them  and  radical  people  first.  In 
making  such  predictions  we  are  following  the  scientific 
method  of  inductive  reasoning.  Instead  of  drawing  con- 
clusions from  things  as  we  think  they  ought  to  be,  we  find 
out  just  how  they  are.  Learning  that  under  given  circum- 
stances certain  things  have  occurred,  we  assume  that  under 
the  same  circumstances  a  repetition  is  highly  probable. 

THE  DIRECTION  OF  SOCIAL  MOVEMENT. 

All  movement,  social  as  well  as  physical,  is  in  the  direc- 
tion of  least  resistance,  or  of  greatest  traction.  The  whole 
race  is  seeking  the  way  of  greatest  self-interest,  and  what- 
ever may  be  the  average  decision  as  to  what  is  deemed  this 
way,  out  of  the  contending  struggle  has  come  progress.  A 
narrowly  ignorant  and  selfish  man  thinks  that  his  interests 
demand  looking  out  purely  for  self,  regardless  of  conse- 
quences to  others.  A  more  liberal-minded  individual  sees 
in  self-sacrifice  a  surer  road  to  true  self-interest.  In  both  ex- 
tremes and  all  the  means  lies  the  impulse  that,  like  the  steam 
of  a  locomotive,  urges  the  race  along  either  to  happiness  or 
to  misery.  If  narrow  selfishness  best  suited  the  require- 
ments of  the  race,  the  narrowly  selfish  man  would  have  the 
advantage  of  his  fellows  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  He 
would,  on  the  average,  make  more  friends  than  any  one  else, 
and  as  the  reaction  of  friendship  is  prosperity,  he  would  be 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  33 

favored  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  Natural  selection 
would  kill  off  and  make  poor  more  of  those  unlike  him  than 
of  those  like  him.  But  people  do  not  like  narrowly  selfish 
people.  Even  those  narrowly  selfish  themselves  detest  nar- 
row selfishness  in  others.  Other  things  being  equal,  there- 
fore, narrow  selfishness  is  likely  to  pull  down  its  possessor 
in  the  fight.  But  self-sacrifice  is  not  always  a  virtue.  To 
try  to  be  perfectly  self-sacrificing  in  a  world  where  those 
around  us  are  not  equally  intent  on  the  same  object  is  to  try 
to  commit  suicide.  In  theory  it  is  fashionable  for  us  to 
commend  unselfishness  always  and  everywhere,  and  to  con- 
demn selfishness  as  wholesalely.  In  practice  we  are  much 
more  sensible.  Extreme  unselfishness  can  lead  to  as  bad 
consequences  for  the  individual  or  the  race  as  extreme  self- 
ishness. Natural  selection  is  constantly  tending  to  weed 
out  both  extremes,  because  they  put  themselves  at  a  disad- 
vantage in  the  struggle.  People  with  both  lines  of  bias  ex- 
ist, but  the  scythe  of  death  is  constantly  trimming  the  bor- 
ders, and  the  balanced  individuals  who  are  neither  too  virtu- 
ous nor  too  vicious  in  the  mean  time  augment  in  numbers. 
He  is  the  best  man  who  can  best  adjust  himself  to  his  envi- 
ronment. Nor  must  he  be  a  time-server,  for  the  endurance 
of  life  is  more  than  a  day.  His  present  attempts  at  adapta- 
tion must  ever  point  futureward.  The  race  is  progressing, 
and  what  he  does  and  says  must  always  be  adapted  to  such 
progress.  In  the  great  world  of  mechanics — this  vast  globe 
of  ours — in  spite  of  volcanoes,  earthquakes,  cyclones,  and  all 
apparent  inequalities,  there  is  an  incessant  strain  toward 
equilibrium.  In  fact,  these  forces,  while  seeming  to  increase 
inequality,  are  actually  slowly  but  surely  leading  toward  the 
same.  In  the  social  world,  in  spite  of  revolutions,  political 
overturnings,  and  heartburnings,  the  main  current  of  change 
points  persistently  toward  personal  freedom  and  equity. 
Indeed,  the  very  forces  that  we  sometimes  think  are  leading 
away  from  this  are  steadily  working  us  toward  it.  Life  is 
one  long  series  of  adjustments  and  adaptations  to  changing 
conditions.  This  incessantly  demands  reciprocal  submission 
between  man  and  man  under  the  penalty  of  extinction  for 
non-compliance.  In  the  long  run,  we  find  a  continuously 
increasing  proportion  of  such  adjustments  along  the  line  of 
equity.  The  growth  of  intelligence  demands  justice  for  self 
by  every  individual.  An  intelligent  man  knows  when  he  is 
imposed  upon  and  resents  it.  The  growth  of  altruism  com- 
pels us  to  demand  justice  for  others  even  when  they  are 


34  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

helpless  in  seeking  it  for  themselves.  We  may  be  often  the 
sufferers  from  doing  a  deed  of  justice,  but  as  a  rule  of  con- 
duct we  will  suffer  far  less  by  pursuing  a  just  than  an  unjust 
course.  The  average  of  the  reactions  always  brings  a  large 
return  of  comfort  for  a  large  expenditure  of  justice.  "  What 
you  sow  that  shall  ye  also  reap."  Equity  and  truthfulness 
are  the  conditions  of  social  stability.  Without  these  so- 
ciety would  go  to  pieces.  That  society  which  possesses  most 
of  these  qualities  is  in  every  way  the  most  substantial  and 
in  a  contest  of  power  the  most  formidable.  Every  living 
soul  insists  upon  justice  and  truthfulness  for  himself  from 
others.  Many  of  us  may  be  willing  enough  to  lie  to  others 
or  to  cheat  others  when  our  altruistic  sentiments  are  im- 
perfectly developed,  but  we  are  not  willing  that  others  shall 
do  the  same  to  us  if  we  know  it  and  can  help  it.  All 
through  society  the  balance  of  strain  is  toward  justice ;  be- 
cause it  is  the  united  sentiment  of  all  we  must  have  it  for 
ourselves.  Since  we  are  to  this  extent  all  of  one  mind,  the 
trend  can  readily  be  seen. 

EACTS,  NOT  WISHES,  THE  BASIS  OF  SOCIOLOGY. 

Turning  to  the  numberless  whims,  fancies,  and  ill-found- 
ed hopes  we  possess,  this  uniformity  of  trend  can  no  longer 
be  seen.  In  all  else,  except  this  trend  toward  justice  and 
truth  with  the  concomitant  sympathy  for  others,  the  ma- 
chinery of  evolution  relentlessly  grinds  its  grist  regardless 
of  our  desires.  These  grand  things  are  traveling  toward 
perfection,  with  little  respect  for  our  plans  to  hasten  them 
along.  If  our  scheme  of  bringing  them  about  is  not  the 
one  Nature  balances  herself  toward,  we  may  hope,  pray,  fret, 
curse,  or  denounce,  yet  when  they  come  we  will  not  have 
aided  them  a  bit.  If  enough  of  us  combine  and  so  suc- 
ceed in  shunting  society  upon  our  ideal  side-track,  we  can 
seriously  retard  progress,  but  we  can  not  aid  it  save  by 
maintaining  favorable  conditions.  The  enemy  of  all  science 
everywhere  and  at  all  times  has  been  a  priori  reasoning 
based  on  introspective  data.  Ignorance  has,  in  all  ages, 
imagined  itself  able,  like  a  spider,  to  spin  out  of  the  contents 
of  its  own  consciousness  a  perfect  description  of  the  uni- 
verse, its  processes  and  contents.  The  growth  of  the  physi- 
cal sciences  has  now  nearly  banished  such  vainglory  from 
the  more  intelligent  so  far  as  the  physical  world  is  con- 
cerned. When,  however,  we  turn  to  the  field  of  sociology, 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  35 

the  same  ridiculous  and  wholly  erroneous  method  is  pur- 
sued. People  never  think  that  their  hopes  are  wholly  un- 
adapted  to  the  race.  What  they  wish  for  they  imagine 
everybody  else  should  wish  for,  and  that  it  would  be  good 
for  everybody  else.  But  few  persons  can  divest  themselves 
of  this  utterly  unscientific  habit.  They  do  not  seem  to  ap- 
preciate the  fact  that  the  virtue  of  the  world  is  not  to  be 
commended  or  supported  because  they  like  it  or  because 
anybody  else  likes  it,  and  wishes  for  its  increase.  The  rea- 
son why  a  scientific  mind  supports  virtue  is  because  it  is 
a  condition  of  social  stability.  Now,  there  are  any  number 
of  people  in  the  world  who  would  no  more  understand  this 
than  Greek.  They  can  not  frame  the  thought  in  their 
minds.  They  can  not  see  that  society  would  go  to  pieces 
without  virtue.  To  them  a  sin  is  a  sin  because  it  is  a  sin. 
They  support  virtue  and  oppose  vice  because  they  feel  that 
the  one  is  right  and  the  other  wrong.  It  is  with  them 
wholly  a  superstition.  To  try  to  teach  such  people  sociolo- 
gy is  like  trying  to  teach  a  man  who  has  been  born  blind 
how  to  tell  green  from  red.  Where  they  have  been  trained 
to  believe  that  eating  meat  on  Friday  is  a  sin  they  have  ex- 
actly the  same  reason  or  feeling  for  loyalty  to  this  habit  as 
for  loyalty  to  personal  purity,  truth,  or  honesty.  No  reason 
except  a  reason  of  feeling  has  a  particle  of  weight  with 
them. 

Logic  and  facts  with  the  accuracy  of  mathematics  have 
no  more  power  of  affecting  their  judgments  than  water  has 
to  penetrate  the  back  of  a  duck.  It  is  perhaps  an  unfortu- 
nate fact,  but  nevertheless  a  true  one,  that  the  great  major- 
ity of  human  beings — and  this  too  includes  the  educated — 
are  utterly  unable  to  reason  on  social  matters  in  any  other 
method  than  the  superstitious  one.  As  the  Catholic  girl  who 
is  devoted  to  her  religion  delights  in  refraining  from  eating 
meat  on  Friday,  and  would  feel  as  bad  or  worse  at  an  omis- 
sion of  this  duty,  from  forgetting  the  day,  as  for  a  lapse  from 
virtue,  so  many  a  Protestant  feels  that  he  has  done  a  great 
wrong  when  violating  the  commands  of  the  decalogue  even 
where  there  is  as  little  real  reason  for  their  support.  Feel- 
ings like  these  some  of  us  have  after  seeing  the  new  moon 
over  our  left  shoulders.  In  all  such  cases  the  directing 
force  is  the  same  in  kind.  It  is  easy  enough  to  show  a 
Protestant  the  superstitious  traits  of  a  Catholic,  or  a  free- 
thinker those  of  a  Protestant,  but  it  is  usually  impossible  to 
convince  any  one  of  them  that  he  or  she  has  superstitious 


36  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

ways.  Every  person  who  is  satisfied  with  a  feeling  instead 
of  a  reason  is  just  as  superstitious,  to  the  extent  of  that  in- 
clination. And  who  is  wholly  free  from  this  ?  When  we 
think  that  a  given  social  change  should  be  brought  about 
because  we  feel  that  it  would  be  right  or  best,  we  are  in  the 
clutches  of  superstition.  The  change  may  or  may  not  be 
right,  but  our  bias  forbids  our  being  able  to  decide  honestly 
on  the  evidence.  Not  long  ago  the  author  was  discussing 
Looking  Backward  with  a  lady  of  unusually  high  intelli- 
gence, and  was  more  than  surprised  to  find  that  the  argu- 
ment which  she  deemed  most  conclusive  was  of  this  kind. 
A  very  dear  friend  of  hers,  after  spending  a  useful  life,  was 
in  old  age  suffering  from  penury.  She  desired  a  system 
that  would  care  for  such  cases  and  give  old  age  general- 
ly an  assurance  of  comfort  to  the  last.  It  never  occurred 
to  her  that  reasons  like  this  depending  solely  on  sentiment 
were  as  unsafe  as  those  of  the  Catholic  who  suffers  agony  if 
inadvertently  a  little  meat  happens  to  be  eaten  on  Friday. 
Her  feelings  having  prompted  her  conclusions,  made  her  con- 
strue them  into  a  solution  of  society's  whole  duty.  Such 
sentiments  of  course  do  credit  to  the  hearts  of  those  who 
present  them,  but  are  woefully  out  of  joint  with  careful 
judgment.  In  science,  when  feeling  steps  in,  beware.  Sci- 
entific minds  are  more  critical  of  conclusions  in  proportion 
to  their  agreement  with  wishes  or  desires.  No  truly  scien- 
tific mind  ever  believes  in  its  own  conclusions  when  the 
strong  sway  of  hope,  desire  or  other  emotion  has  intervened. 
Such  conclusions  may  be  right,  but  they  are  far  more  likely 
to  be  totally  wrong.  Everybody  desires  just  such  conditions 
as  will  harmonize  with  his  or  her  own  psychical  make-up. 
Every  man V  ideal  for  the  future,  where  the  inductive  meth- 
od is  not  supreme,  is  an  exaggerated  picture  of  his  own  de- 
sires. Ingersoll  once  said  that  "  an  honest  God  is  the 
noblest  work  of  man."  The  sociologist  might  say  that, 
with  the  masses,  an  honest  Utopia  is  the  master-work  of 
man.  This  dreaming  of  the  future  and  building  up  schemes 
of  social  salvation  would  be  all  right  if  we  were — body  and 
soul — products  of  the  future.  Unfortunately,  we  are  not. 
We  were  made  in  the  past  and  by  the  past.  Our  structures 
harmonize  with  conditions  that  have  gone  and  are  going. 
We  harmonize  slightly  with  the  immediate  future,  less  with 
the  somewhat  remote  future,  less  still  with  the  more  remote 
future,  and  scarcely  at  all  with  the  very  remote  future.  We 
harmonize  with  the  future  only  in  those  things  in  which 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  37 

the  future  resembles  the  past.  As  the  resemblance  disap- 
pears, the  harmony  of  our  present  structures  becomes  less 
and  less  that  of  the  future.  This  is,  was,  and  promises 
ever  to  be,  a  changing  universe.  Conditions  of  adaptation 
in  one  age  are  those  of  maladaptation  in  the  next.  For  this 
reason  we  can  usually  be  pretty  certain  that  the  things  and 
conditions  that  are  coming  are  things  and  conditions  that 
in  many  particulars  we  do  not  want.  Indeed,  we  can  not 
want  them.  They  are  antagonistic  to  our  present  natures. 
It  has  always  been  the  experience  of  the  race  that  the 
things  most  desired  were  the  very  things  that  did  not  come. 
It  is  as  natural  for  us  to  wish  for  an  extension  and  augmen- 
tation of  our  whims,  prejudices,  superstitions,  and  desires  as 
for  us  to  breathe.  We  simply  can  not  help  it  except  we 
put  ourselves  under  intense  restraint,  and  then  it  can  only 
last  for  a  little  while.  Indeed,  we  seldom  know  how  to  re- 
strain ourselves,  for  we  do  not  usually  know  our  prejudices 
from  our  highest  nights  of  wisdom,  nor  our  whims  from  our 
most  carefully  constructed  logic.  When  we  deem  ourselves 
free  from  such  things  we  are  quite  certain  to  be  enslaved 
most  foully.  The  man  who  thinks  he  has  no  prejudices 
and  no  whims  is  the  man  who  is  most  fully  charged  with 
them.  Since  on  whim  and  prejudice  or  soft-hearted  desire 
we  build  our  ideal  future,  it  can  not  be  wondered  at  that 
the  race  has  ever  met  with  disappointment.  Such  founda- 
tions of  sand  can  never  stand  even  if  we  do  think  them  the 
rock  of  eternal  truth.  If  history  emphasizes  any  one  thing 
more  than  another  it  is  that  human  ideals  are  everlastingly 
ignored  by  the  laws  of  evolution.  One  by  one  they  are 
swept  into  the  great  abyss  of  forgetfulness,  despite  the  de- 
spair of  their  votaries,  and  their  places  are  finally  taken  by 
a  new-formed  satisfaction  with  the  inevitable.  Adaptation 
is  happiness,  and  perfect  adaptation,  if  it  could  be  acquired, 
would  be  the  beatitude  of  perfect  happiness.  Wherever  we 
are  placed  and  whatever  the  condition,  our  heaven  is  made 
by  fitting  ourselves  for  that  place  and  that  condition. 
Whatever  the  future  has  in  store  for  us,  if  we  adapt  our- 
selves to  it  we  will  be  happy. 

The  Puritan's  ideal  Sabbath,  for  which  he  fought  so  he- 
roically, is  gone,  and  one  that  would  have  filled  his  soul  with 
holy  horror  has  taken  its  place.  The  dreaded  black  arts  of 
chemistry  and  physics  that  our  fathers  thought  Beelzebub 
was  responsible  for,  and  which  they  fought  so  hard  to  extin- 
guish, are  now  taught  to  our  children  in  schools  and  col- 


38  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

leges.  The  pomp  and  show  of  dress  with  pride  of  heart 
that  appalled  them  are  now  commended.  Women  that 
were  taught,  like  children,  to  be  seen  and  not  heard  when 
their  supposed  betters  were  around,  no  longer  keep  silent  in 
churches,  or  stop  to  ask  knowledge  from  their  husbands  at 
home.  They  are  now  the  teachers  and  preachers  of  the  age. 
The  short  hair  that  was  as  disgraceful  as  a  lapse  in  virtue  for 
women  is  now  getting  to  be  quite  fashionable.  Education, 
that  kings  and  people  despised  and  declared  contemptuous- 
ly was  disgraceful  to  all  but  cloistered  priests,  is  now  well- 
nigh  universal.  To-day  we  are  no  nearer  the  millennial 
reign  than  when  Isaiah  prophesied  and  Jeremiah  lamented. 
Where  are  the  religions,  creeds,  theories,  and  superstitions 
that  men  bled  for,  were  burnt  at  the  stake  for,  and  in  many 
ways  laid  down  their  lives  for  ?  Each  had  an  ideal  of  a  re- 
deemed race  cut  after  its  own  pattern  in  manner  of  thought 
as  well  as  of  dress.  Now  they  are  all  gone,  but  they  did 
not  disappear  until  another  brood  of  kindred  type  had  taken 
their  places. 

The  ideals  of  savage  man  are  the  very  reverse  of  those  of 
civilized  man.  To  the  former  a  prospective  view  showing 
our  methods  and  life  would  only  give  a  demonstration  of 
retrogression.  Our  kindness  to  each  other,  ordinary  polite- 
ness, and  refusing  to  mutilate  and  enslave  our  foes  would 
be  evidence  of  cowardice.  Our  giving  up  a  nomadic  for  a 
settled  life  and  that  of  hunter  for  husbandman  would  be 
sure  signs  that  we  had  gone  backward  instead  of  forward. 
Indians  think  the  habits  of  industrial  men  are  habits  fit 
only  for  squaws.  To  foresee  a  civilization  like  ours  as  the 
fate  of  their  descendants  would  certainly  not  have  made  the 
early  aborigines  feel  elated.  The  low  tribes  of  the  South 
Pacific  and  of  Central  Africa  deem  lying,  stealing,  and  mur- 
dering of  any  one  not  of  their  own  tribe  as  accomplishments 
worthy  of  emulation.  At  no  time  and  in  no  condition  of 
life  has  there  ever  been  any  cause  for  sympathy  with  the 
future  except  during  the  expansion  of  some  newly  acquired 
trait  after  habit  had  fixed  its  seal  of  approval.  Progress 
comes,  not  by  man's  effort  but  in  spite  of  it.  Every  step 
of  progress  has  been  contested  inch  by  inch  by  man.  The 
forces  of  progress,  like  a  stream,  have  flowed  along,  and  one 
by  one  taken  in  an  individual  at  a  time  from  the  midst  of 
the  contending,  denouncing,  and  decrying  mass.  One  indi- 
vidual perceives  the  drift  before  the  rest  and  calls  upon  all 
to  enter  it,  but  they  scout  him.  Before  entering,  he  con- 


The  Study  oj  Applied  Sociology.  39 

tested  the  ground  with  himself  till  Nature  forced  him  to  see 
that  he  was  wrong  and  the  whole  race  wrong.  As  others 
gain  like  experiences  from  Nature  they  become  able  to 
understand  him  and  enter  the  stream.  Events  conspire  to 
make  men  think.  Until  they  do,  proper  cerebration  can  not 
occur.  When  such  cerebration  occurs  they  can  not  refrain 
from  doing  their  part.  Until  it  does  occur  there  is  nothing 
in  the  brain  that  can  unfold  a  true  system  of  the  future. 
Until  future  changes  have  already  begun  men  take  no  con- 
scious part  in  their  production.  Deductive  reasoning  is, 
therefore,  childish.  It  is  well  enough  to  conjure  up  fairies 
and  good  angels  with  magic  power  to  establish  our  ideals 
and  grant  our  whims,  but  it  is  foolishness  to  label  it  Science 
or  have  the  least  hopes  of  realization  in  fact.  Children 
delight  in  building  castles  in  the  air,  stringing  them  out 
hours  at  a  time.  It  is  a  happy  pastime.  They  foresee 
themselves  discovering  buried  treasures  or  entering  caves 
filled  with  rich  gems  a  V Aladdin.  As  years  creep  on,  the 
dreams  become  less  and  less  sweeping.  They  become  con- 
tent with  smaller  things.  Finally,  in  full  manhood  they  set- 
tle contentedly  down  to  fight  for  just  what  they  can  wring 
from  Nature  day  by  day.  As  with  the  man,  so  with  the  race. 
In  the  problems  of  sociology  very  many  are  yet  in  the  stage 
of  green,  inexperienced  youth.  They  picture  great  changes, 
and  all  harmonizing  with  their  most  selfish  desires.  Earth 
is  going  to  become  a  paradise.  "Houris  for  boys,  omni- 
science for  sages,  and  wings  and  glories  for  all  ranks  and 
ages."  Their  hopes  are  boundless  and  their  dreams  grand. 
They  depict  their  Utopias  without  stint  or  fear  of  surfeit, 
never  once  stopping  to  ask  whether  in  the  equilibration  of 
social  forces  such  things  are  foredoomed.  Such  dreaming 
unfits  us  for  the  earnest  work  of  real  coming  life.  It  causes 
us  to  attempt  the  execution  of  crazy  plots  fit  only  for  a  mad- 
house. It  makes  us  neglect  facts,  and,  worse  still,  suppress 
facts  that  ought  to  be  known  and  fully  weighed.  Full- 
grown  minds  relinquish  all  such  air-castle  building.  They 
have  discovered  that  their  wishes  are  far  from  being  Nature's 
decrees.  They  make  the  question,  "  What  ought  we  to  do?" 
subordinate  to  "What  can  we  do?"  'They  seek  to  get  as 
near  the  "  ought  "  as  possible,  but  in  discovering  what  the 
"  ought "  should  be  they  consult  objective  facts,  not  subject- 
ive fancies.  It  is  a  very  great  pity  that  so  many  educated 
men  and  women — educated  as  education  now  goes — waste 
brain  power  lingering  in  the  delirium  of  the  enchanting 
4 


40  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

pastime  here  depicted.  So  deluded  indeed  are  they  that 
they  come  to  consider  it  superior,  as  science,  to  the  substan- 
tial structure  of  a  sociology  built  upon  objective  facts  that 
assumes  nothing,  wishes  nothing,  and  makes  no  ideals. 
Like  Jesus  in  Gethsemane,  true  sociologists  are  content  to 
say :  "  Not  my  will,  but  thine,  0  Nature,  be  done." 

SOME  MISLEADING  FANCIES. 

Ignorance  is  never  conscious  of  itself  as  such.  We  all 
have  a  weakness  for  having  an  opinion  of  our  own  on  mat- 
ters of  which  we  know  nothing,  and  we  are  usually  free  to 
back  that  opinion  with  considerable  vim.  We  are  honest 
in  this  and  really  think  that  others  are  as  much  in  the  dark 
as  ourselves.  As  we  come  in  contact  with  others  who  have 
made  a  special  study  of  such  subjects  and  we  gradually  ab- 
sorb a  few  of  their  facts,  it  dawns  upon  us  that  possibly 
they  were  right  after  all.  This  renders  us  less  belligerent 
and  perhaps  wholly  passive.  Toward  physical  science  a 
very  large  proportion  of  intelligent  men  now  occupy  this 
passive  attitude.  The  crassly  ignorant  are  still  ready  to 
contest  the  conclusions  of  the  whole  scientific  world.  To- 
ward social  science  the  passive  state  has  only  been  reached 
by  a  few.  The  great  majority  are  still  at  war  with  its  sim- 
plest and  most  readily  verified  conclusions.  This  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  when  we  consider  the  character  of  our  past 
training  and  how  it  is  at  war  with  our  dearest  prejudices. 
While  this  state  of  passive  neutrality  is  a  better  one  than 
that  which  preceded  it,  we  can  not  consider  it  wholly  safe 
or  good.  The  scientific  charlatan  takes  advantage  of  it  and 
through  arrogant  pretensions  misdirects  and  confuses  the 
men  of  a  little  learning.  When  legislative  bodies  represent- 
ing States  and  even  the  whole  nation  can  be  gulled,  where 
deception  should  be  impossible,  what  can  we  hope  for  where 
ignorance  is  dense?  If  the  men  who  should  be  thoroughly 
scientific  in  their  training,  and  who  are  trusted  by  over  sixty 
millions  of  people  to  make  their  laws,  can  be  led  into  spend- 
ing the  nation's  money  in  idiotic  experiments  for  the  pro- 
duction of  rain  in  arid,  regions,  what  hope  can  we  have  from 
the  far  less  favored  masses?  We  have  plenty  of  expert 
meteorologists  in  and  out  of  the  Government's  employ. 
Any  one  of  these  could  have  told  them  how  futile  such  at- 
tempts would  prove.  The  trouble  was  that  they  thought 
their  own  judgments  superior  where  they  imagined  there 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  41 

existed  a  difference  between  authorities.  They  could  not 
differentiate  the  ignorant  pretender  from  the  honest  and 
well-posted  expert.  If  they  will  not  accept  the  dicta  of 
physical  science  where  they  know  enough  of  it  to  know  that 
they  are  ignorant,  how  can  we  hope  to  have  them  accept 
the  conclusions  of  social  science  where  they  really  believe 
they  know  more  than  anybody  else?  The  wise  Solons  of 
our  own  State  of  New  York,  not  so  very  long  ago,  voted  a 
large  sum  of  money  to  pay  a  quack  for  a  hydrophobia-cur- 
ing remedy.  Any  physician  could  have  told  them  it  was  a 
humbug.  They  thought  they  knew  more  than  the  doctors. 
Our  farming  population  and  many  legislators  believe  they 
know  more  of  finance  than  bankers  who  have  made  it  a  life- 
study. 

We  all  should  know  that  people  whom  we  happen  to  love 
or  respect  are  just  as  likely  to  do  wrong  as  those  we  do  not 
know.  The  fact  that  we  know  them  or  that  we  respect 
them  does  not  make  saints  of  them.  Where  our  opinions 
of  individuals  are  based  upon  selected  experiences  of  a  test 
quality  and  our  love  or  affection  has  come  as  a  consequence 
of  these  we  are  not  likely  to  be  often,  if  ever,  surprised  by 
lapses  in  their  conduct.  But  where  we  draw  our  conclu- 
sions solely  because  we  like  them  and  wish  them  to  be  good, 
concluding  that  therefore  they  are  good,  we  are  the  victims 
of  misleading  fancy.  This  condition  of  mind  is  usually 
seen  in  an  exaggerated  form  among  mothers  toward  their 
children.  The  maternal  affection  will  not  allow  them  to 
think  that  in  a  quarrel  their  children  are  to  blame.  It  is 
always  assumed  that  somebody's  else  was  in  fault.  Physi- 
cians and  teachers  are  often  embarrassed  by  this  form  of 
bias.  In  patriotism  it  likewise  appears.  Any  trouble  that 
arises  between  our  own  country  and  another  causes  us  at 
once  to  assume  that  ours  must  be  in  the  right.  Even  if  the 
evidence  is  conclusive  that  we  were  wrong,  we  still  endeavor 
to  make  it  appear  otherwise.  In  comparing  our  country 
with  others  the  same  misdirection  of  judgment  through 
feeling  occurs.  To  us  the  great  men  of  other  countries  are 
pygmies  as  compared  with  ours,  their  literatures  insignifi- 
cant, their  soldiers  poltroons,  their  methods  and  discipline 
inferior,  their  prowess  small,  their  education  contemptible, 
and  their  religion  drivel.  The  same  deeds  that  when  done 
by  our  own  people  display  heroism  or  wise  expediency,  if 
done  by  another  nation  are  distorted  into  cruelty,  savagery, 
or  treachery.  If  we  are  angered  with  the  ruling  powers  of 


42  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

our  own  country  an  antipatriotic  bias  comes  forth  that  is 
equally  pernicious.  In  politics  and  in  religion  this  same 
type  of  bias  obtrudes  itself.  Our  political  antagonists  are 
all  and  always  deemed  wrong.  Their  platforms  may  be  the 
very  same  as  those  of  our  own  party  in  another  State,  yet 
we  will  denounce  them  in  unmeasured  terms.  Our  religious 
foes  are  heretics  and  heathens.  As  Christians  we  feel  called 
upon  to  consider  Mohammedans,  Buddhists,  and  Brahmins  as 
horribly  depraved  creatures.  Because  an  occasional  acci- 
dent has  happened  during  the  passage  of  the  triumphal  car 
of  Juggernaut,  or  because  an  occasional  suicide  through 
insanity  has  been  committed  under  its  ponderous  wheels, 
our  Sunday-school  books  have  given  us  harrowing  accounts 
of  the  utter  darkness  of  the  heathens  who  sacrifice  each 
other  to  appease  a  supposed  angry  idol.  The  facts  when 
freed  from  theological  bias  proved  to  be  quite  diiferent. 
Juggernaut,  as  believed  in  by  Hindoos,  opposes  human 
sacrifice  and  advocates  kindness  and  charity.  All  our  de- 
scriptions of  the  religious  rites  of  people  other  than  Chris- 
tian have  been  distorted  in  this  manner.  Protestants  mis- 
represent the  tenets  of  Catholics,  and  Catholics  those  of 
Protestants.  Infidels,  with  an  anti-theological  bias  that 
discredits  their  claims  to  liberality,  deal  in  the  same  unscien- 
tific method  with  the  churches,  and  the  latter  with  true 
theological  acrimony  retaliate.  So  intense  is  this  hateful 
and  groundless  feeling  of  bias  that  it  leads  to  trouble  in 
every  direction.  Wherever  we  find  and  analyze  it  we  dis- 
cover that  it  is  but  a  highly  exaggerated  form  of  indirect 
self-conceit.  Our  personal  deeds,  thoughts,  and  words,  and 
the  deeds,  thoughts,  and  words  produced  by  or  emanating 
from  our  family,  our  tribe,  our  clique,  our  faction,  our 
party,  our  country,  our  class,  our  friends,  our  club,  our 
church,  our  society,  or  our  anything  else,  must  be  right, 
while  the  same  things  of  the  other  fellows  must  be  wrong. 
Whoever  agrees  with  us  is  our  fellow,  but  if  he  fails  to  do 
so  he  is  not.  This  form  of  misdirected  egoism  leads  its 
possessor  into  all  forms  of  misdirected  judgment  and  in- 
cessantly reacts  to  his  own  injury.  The  rich,  by  defending 
the  rich,  right  or  wrong,  bring  upon  themselves  adverse 
legislation.  The  poor,  in  defending  the  poor,  right  or  wrong, 
bring  upon  themselves  increased  difficulties  of  life.  The 
Church,  as  the  defender  of  the  faith,  by  its  excessive  defense 
has  lowered  its  dignity  and  destroyed  its  power  for  good. 
It  is  a  difficult  or  perhaps  impossible  thing  to  get  the  rich 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  43 

to  see  and  appreciate  the  fact  that  they  only  exist  as  a 
distinct  class  because  it  is  best  for  the  whole  nation.  There 
is  no  more  divine  right  for  aristocracy  than  there  was  a 
divine  right  for  kings.  Kings  exist  now  and  always  had 
their  existence  because  they  were  a  necessity  of  the  con- 
ditions of  their  times.  The  nations  having  them  were  the 
better  for  them.  They  survived  because  they  were  fit,  but 
as  soon  as  such  a  form  of  government  ceased  to  be  fit  they 
disappeared.  We  have  people  now  that  are  immensely 
wealthy,  and  others  abjectly  poor.  These  two  extremes  are 
here  because  they  are  a  necessity  of  man's  present  develop- 
ment in  morality  and  knowledge.  This  is  the  condition  of 
greatest  social  stability  possible  with  men  constituted  as  the 
race  is.  As  soon  as  they  improve,  their  relative  conditions 
will  change,  and  always  in  about  the  proportion  of  their 
moral  and  intellectual  improvement.  All  hasty  and  ill- 
advised  changes,  however  desirable  they  may  appear  to  be, 
can  only  end  in  injury  if  premature.  The  question  of  right 
and  wrong  in  this  can  not  be  settled  by  an  appeal  to  feeling. 
What  we  feel  to  be  right  is  not  always  right,  and  what  we 
feel  to  be  wrong  is  often  proved  right.  A  broader  outlook 
must  be  taken. 

One  of  the  greatest  boons  that  a  true  sociology  could 
bring  would  be  the  sweeping  away  of  the  intense  rancor 
that  is  born  of  ignorance  in  matters  social.  How  unfortu- 
nate it  is  that  men  can  not  control  their  tempers  in  debat- 
ing such  topics !  This  bitterness,  no  doubt,  was  a  highly 
laudable  condition  when  the  issues  were  of  life  and  death. 
Even  when  we  view  the  matter  from  the  early  theological 
standpoint  a  benefit  can  be  seen  to  arise.  If  nothing  else, 
it  betrayed  the  sterling  candor  of  those  having  it.  Calvin 
never  would  have  permitted  Servetus  to  be  burned  at  the 
stake  had  he  not  sincerely  believed  that  he  was  endanger- 
ing the  salvation  of  thousands  of  souls.  He  thought  it  a 
less  evil  to  have  Servetus  die  thus  than  to  have  myriads 
deceived  by  him  and  cast  into  eternal  torture.  Much  of 
the  ill  will  that  is  now  evoked  is  classified  as  righteous 
indignation.  True  sociology  will  show  the  world  that  dis- 
honesty of  purpose  is  how  the  exception  and  not  the  rule. 
Only  a  short-sighted  mortal  who  deserves  the  name  of  bigot 
will  in  future  denounce  every  one  who  disagrees  with  him 
as  dishonest.  Every  party  in  politics,  every  creed  in  re- 
ligion, and  every  class  in  business  is  in  the  main  actuated  by 
honesty  of  purpose.  They  may  be  misled  or  deceived,  but  a 


44  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

multitude  can  not  be  brought  together  in  which  all  are 
either  fools  or  knaves.  All  the  truth  is  seldom  or  never  on 
one  side.  Both  have  part  and  are  but  supplement  and  com- 
plement of  each  other.  As  our  earth  maintains  its  orbit, 
and  as  the  harmony  of  the  spheres  is  kept  up  by  the  balanc- 
ing strain  of  opposite  currents  of  energy,  so  social  develop- 
ment moves  along  a  similar  line  of  balance  between  all  the 
heterogeneous  opinions  of  society's  units.  The  theological 
bias  is  corrected  by  an  antitheological,  and  all  the  biases  are 
checked  and  counter-checked  by  one  another.  Two  wrongs 
thus  often  make  a  right  and  two  errors  balance  us  into  truth. 
Sometimes  for  a  season  movement  is  lopsided  because  an 
overwhelming  majority  goes  one  way,  but  this  is  soon  self- 
correcting.  The  orbit  of  the  earth  is  not  a  perfect  circle. 
Sometimes  one  force  predominates  and  sometimes  another. 
Conservative  people  check  the  too  radical,  and  radical  people 
check  the  too  conservative.  Give  gravity  a  chance  and  it 
would  wreck  the  solar  system.  Give  tangential  energy  an 
opportunity,  and  we  should  fly  into  unknown  space  orbitless. 
Give  theologians  a  chance,  and  we  should  be  run  into  a  cur- 
rent of  involution  and  wrecked.  Give  freethinkers  a  chance, 
and  we  should  fly  off  into  utter  intellectual  chaos.  Give  the 
Democratic  spirit  a  chance,  and  we  should  split  into  riotous 
mobs.  Give  the  Republican  spirit  a  chance,  and  we  should 
fuse  into  a  national  tyranny.  Give  the  minor  parties  and 
minor  creeds  the  opportunity  they  seek,  and  a  thousand 
eccentric  paths  would  mark  our  flight  and  part  us  worse 
than  the  asteroids.  Until  men  have  learned  that  truth  has 
a  dual  aspect  and  that  the  two  halves  are  quite  likely  to  be 
contradictions  from  the  individual's  standpoint,  they  will  not 
be  willing  fully  to  dwell  in  peace  with  one  another.  Social 
science  will  teach  them  this.  When  its  tenets  are  diffused 
we  will  cease  to  see  the  silly  habit  indulged  in  of  refusing  to 
listen  to  the  arguments  of  an  opponent  or  to  give  weight  to 
conclusions  that  happen  to  be  unlike  our  own.  Legislators 
will  no  longer  strive  to  pass  laws  favored  by  their  constitu- 
ents, right  or  wrong.  Parties  will  try  to  agree  upon  a  policy 
for  the  common  good  instead  of  trying  to  misdirect  and  de- 
ceive for  the  purpose  of  carrying  put  whims.  Our  statute 
books  are  full  of  absurdities  and  inconsistencies  that  need 
correcting,  but  neither  party  dares  to  touch  them  for  fear  of 
the  other.  Take,  for  instance,  a  single  example  from  our 
patent  laws.  Foreigners  can  come  here  and  take  out  patents 
for  their  inventions  and  then  refuse  to  make  them  in  this 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  45 

country.  Fictitious  prices  are  fixed  upon  their  goods  which 
we  have  to  pay  as  the  cost  of  labor  and  profit  that  is  spent 
abroad.  This  is  seen  in  the  patents  on  antipyrine,  sulphonal, 
and  phenacetine.  In  Germany,  where  they  are  made,  they  can 
be  bought  for  one  fifth  the  price  we  are  compelled  to  pay. 
The  German  Government  refuses  to  give  Dr.  Knorr  a  whole- 
sale monopoly  on  antipyrine,  and  as  a  consequence  it  sells  in 
Germany  at  twenty-five  or  thirty  cents  an  ounce.  We  Ameri- 
cans are  so  very  kind  that  we  give  him  a  monopoly  here  and 
he  charges  us  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  ounce.  This  dollar 
and  a  quarter  is  paid  by  the  sick  and  suffering  of  America 
to  make  rich  a  German  in  Germany  and  to  pay  for  the  work 
of  German  workmen.  We  could  make  it  and  sell  it  at 
home  for  twenty-five  cents  per  ounce,  but  our  absurd  laws 
will  not  let  us  do  so.  We  are  not  permitted  by  Ameri- 
can law  to  employ  American  workingmen  in  what  should 
be  a  legitimate  business.  We  are  not  allowed  to  lower  the 
price  of  a  necessary  article  for  relieving  the  torture  of  our 
most  agonizing  diseases  to  a  figure  that  will  permit  the 
poor  to  use  it.  Germans  refuse  to  be  as  kind  to  Germans 
as  we  are  to  them.  Our  display  of  national  altruism  is  au- 
gust indeed  in  its  stupidity,  but  our  political  leaders  pre- 
fer to  quarrel  about  who  sent  the  World's  Fair  to  Chicago 
in  preference  to  endeavoring  to  right  such  glaring  wrongs. 
All  this,  too,  is  due  to  fear  of  consequences.  A  little  true 
social  science  introduced  here  will  be  of  very  great  bene- 
fit. It  will  show  our  legislators  that  they  ought  to  study 
the  principles  underlying  social  aggregation  and  con- 
struct laws  in  accordance  therewith.  Laws  should  be 
discovered,  not  manufactured  to  suit  occasions  or  to  please 
cliques.  It  will  give  over-zealous  reconstructionists  a  lesson 
of  patient  waiting.  Nothing  starts  in  the  new.  Every- 
thing evolves  from  past  things  and  every  condition  from 
past  conditions.  It  will  tell  those  who  look  for  future  uni- 
formity that  that  has  never  yet  been  Nature's  method  and 
is  not  likely  to  be  in  the  future.  All  evolution  is  differen- 
tiation. Social  evolution  must  be  the  same.  There  not 
only  will  always  be  differences  in  men,  but  these  will  become 
more  and  more  marked.  Some  will  vary  one  way,  some  an- 
other, and  the  links  uniting  them  will  in  time  be  broken. 
The  world  still  has  its  radiates,  articulates,  molluscs,  fishes, 
birds,  quadrupeds,  quadrumana,  and  men.  Of  the  latter  it 
still  has  its  savages,  barbarians,  semi-civilized,  and  civilized. 
In  religion,  Fetichism,  Brahminism,  Buddhism,  Hebrewism, 


46  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

and  Christianity  still  survive.  The  lowest  rounds  of  the 
ladder  are  most  numerously  represented.  The  fruits  of 
evolution  all  lie  in  relation  to  each  other  like  different  lev- 
els of  an  ascending  pyramid.  At  the  base  and  occupying 
immensely  the  greater  room  are  the  lowest  forms.  At  the 
apex  and  contracted  are  the  higher.  There  are  more  hea- 
thens than  Christians,  more  Catholics  than  Protestants,  and 
more  conservatives  than  liberals.  Have  we  any  reason  for 
believing  that  this  will  ever  be  reversed  ?  If  we  have,  are 
we  quite  sure  that  our  schemes  will  reverse  it  ?  Wherever 
and  whenever  any  form  became  more  numerous  than  the 
preceding  form,  it  was  always  through  survival  in  a  struggle. 
The  unfit  were  killed  off.  We  have  no  example  of  the  fit 
bearing  the  burdens  of  the  unfit  and  both  surviving  on  an 
equality.  Unfitness  tends  always  to  generate  parasitism. 
The  parasite  is  a  disease-producer  and  pulls  down  its  host, 
lessening  its  chances  in  the  struggle.  Everything  that  re- 
lieves any  creature  of  the  results  and  consequences  of  its 
own  conduct  trains  it  to  become  a  disease-producing  para- 
site. What  reasoning  have  we  for  believing  that  there  is 
any  mitigation  among  men  of  the  rigorousness  of  this  law  ? 
If  those  plants  or  animals  that  are  tending  toward  parasit- 
ism are  forced  to  depend  upon  their  own  resources  with  no 
other  help  than  a  slight  release  from  a  too  intense  struggle, 
they  survive  and  improve.  Is  it  not  equally  so  with  men  ? 
Helplessness  that  can  be  helped  to  helpfulness  deserves,  and 
is  always  likely  to  receive  help,  among  human  beings.  Help- 
lessness that  can  not  be  so  helped  cumbers  the  ground  that 
might  be  used  by  its  betters.  Nature  everywhere  works 
toward  increasing  strength  and  diminishing  weakness.  It 
does  so  in  society  as  it  did  so  before  there  was  any  society. 
Strength  of  intellect  gives  its  possessor  an  advantage  over 
all  otherwise  equally  endowed.  Strength  in  self-abnegation, 
strength  in  truthfulness,  strength  in  virtue,  strength  in 
every  quality  that  is  fitting,  is  being  incessantly  selected. 
We  denounce  cunning,  but  so  long  as  it  benefits  the  creat- 
ure possessing  it  more  than  our  denunciations  hurt  it,  cun- 
ning will  survive  and  multiply.  We  commend  dogged  per- 
sistence, but  so  long  as  being  what  is  called  "  game  "  injures 
us  in  the  struggle  for  life,  so  long  will  the  quality  of  being 
"  game "  become  less  and  less.  We  denounce  a  love  of 
wealth  and  deference  to  the  wealthy.  But  so  long  as  these 
aid  the  sycophant,  sycophancy  will  multiply.  It  is  not 
what  we  like  or  dislike,  what  we  denounce  or  adore,  but 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  47 

what  adds  to  the  chances  of  life,  that  goes  to  make  up  the 
conditions  of  futurity.  One  at  a  time  men  see  these  condi- 
tions, and,  obeying  Nature's  trend,  save  themselves  from  the 
errors  of  their  fellows.  Everybody  first  opposes  the  trend 
for  reasons  already  pointed  out.  To  this  trend  of  things 
thoughts  must  conform.  This  trend  is  the  equilibration  of 
all  forces  social,  psychical,  and  physical,  but  mainly  physi 
cal.  Sanity  consists  in  conforming  thoughts  to  things.  So- 
ciological reasoning  is  the  reasoning  of  sanity.  All  human 
beings  first  fight  progress,  but  are  wheeled  into  line  by  be- 
ing convinced  that  Nature  is  against  them.  They  see  that 
they  must  conform  to  progress  or  suffer.  They  convince 
others  by  adducing  evidence  that  Nature  is  going  that  way 
and  not  by  appealing  to  their  whims  or  prejudices.  Nature 
does  not  adjust  herself  to  man,  as  so  many  believe.  Man 
must  adjust  himself  to  Nature.  The  function  of  propa- 
gandism  in  progression  is  to  try  to  teach  our  fellows  to 
rightly  adjust  themselves  rather  than  to  help  Nature  bring 
about  growth  Nature  can  take  care  of  herself ;  we  must 
take  care  of  ourselves.  If  as  a  nation  we  violate  the  laws 
of  proper  equilibrium,  we  suffer  or  die.  If  as  an  individual 
we  do  the  same,  a  like  fate  awaits  us.  To  travel  in  Nature's 
channel  is  health  and  life.  To  get  out  of  that  channel  is 
disease  and  death.  Our  constant  natural  trend  has  been  to 
get  out  of  the  proper  channel,  but  Nature  has  hitherto 
always  succeeded  in  whipping  us  back  into  it  again.  If  we 
stubbornly  refuse  to  go  back,  our  doom  is  sealed.  We  must 
perish.  That  channel  we  do  not  make.  It  is  made  for  us. 
The  millions  of  contending  fancies  and  whims  neutralize 
each  other  and  can  not  be  realized.  None  of  them  can,  if 
based  on  human  desire  instead  of  objective  fact.  Whatever 
we  do  that  is  not  in  Nature's  preordained  channel  only  re- 
tards and  brings  more  evil  than  good.  It  is  not  generally 
known  that  in  all  human  experience  the  outer  margin  of 
adaptation  is  flanked  with  maladjustments.  The  act  that 
benefits  one  individual,  nation,  or  race,  injures  another.  No 
law  can  be  passed,  no  social  action  taken,  however  good, 
that  does  not  bring  evil  with  it  somewhere.  Improvement 
is  not  from  bad  to  good,  but  only  from  bad  to  a  little  bet- 
ter. What  a  blessing  it  would  be  to  the  community  if  legis- 
lators, governors,  and  presidents  could  have  this  fact  fully 
impressed  upon  them  !  Every  session  of  the  Legislature  in 
our  State  starts  forces  that  bring  poverty,  hunger,  disease, 
and  death  to  hundreds  of  our  fellow-citizens.  In  the  most 


48  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

flippant  manner  and  with  their  yeas  and  nays  they  are  con- 
stantly decreeing  death  and  desolation,  even  when  they 
imagine  they  are  bringing  only  blessings  to  their  fellows. 
There  is  but  one  proper  justification  for  the  passage  of  a 
new  law  or  the  repeal  of  an  old  one.  It  should  bring  more 
good  than  evil.  How  often  do  legislators  take  pains  to  dis- 
cover all  possible  evils  that  might  result  from  a  proposed  act  ? 
Do  they  ever  try  to  trace  the  ramifications  of  consequences 
and  to  see  how  many  have  been  injured  directly  and  indi- 
rectly by  the  change  ?  No  two  bodies  can  occupy  the  same 
space  at  the  same  time,  and  when  one  body  is  forced  into 
the  previously  occupied  space  of  another,  a  chain  of  conse- 
quences, both  good  and  ill,  must  result  from  the  successive 
series  of  unforeseen  changes  that  followed.  Do  not  our 
legislators  and  reformers  usually  try  to  bury  out  of  sight 
whatever  might  suggest  possible  ill  consequences?  In  urg- 
ing their  schemes  upon  the  people,  do  they  ever  try  to  make 
clear  the  myriad  wrongs,  injustice,  and  damage  that  must 
occur  somewhere  by  the  adoption  of  their  scheme?  In 
pointing  out  only  the  good,  they  deceive.  The  very  worst 
and  most  diabolical  social  scheme  possible,  if  adopted, 
would  bring  some  new  benefits  and  new  good  to  us  and  cor- 
rect some  existing  evils.  Any  change,  however  bad,  must 
bring  new  good.  The  converse  is  equally  true.  Any 
scheme,  however  good,  must  bring  some  new  evil.  It  is 
evident,  therefore,  that  to  only  show  the  good  that  is  ex- 
pected from  a  proposed  change,  tells  us  really  nothing  of 
the  value  of  such  a  change.  The  worst  possible  scheme  can 
thus  be  justified.  Truth  can  never  be  reached  in  this  one- 
sided manner.  As  the  merchant  determines  his  standing 
by  a  comparison  of  the  debit  and  credit  sides  of  his  ledger, 
so  the  seeker  after  sociological  truth  can  only  gain  it  by  a 
similar  process.  All  new  schemes  should  be  tried  by  this 
process,  and  every  man  who  endeavors  to  suppress,  hide,  or 
mitigate  adverse  facts  should  be  deemed  a  public  enemy.  A 
knowledge  of  the  evils  done  is  really  of  as  much  or  more 
value  than  is  that  of  the  good.  Without  such  knowledge 
correct  conclusions  are  impossible.  It  can  always  be  set 
down  as  a  fact  that  when  a  system  is  urged  as  being  free 
from  danger  and  devoid  of  evils,  its  advocates  either  do  not 
know  what  they  are  talking  about  or  they  are  trying  to  de- 
ceive. In  the  very  nature  of  things  every  possible  scheme 
must  have  its  defects  and  drawbacks  as  well  as  its  advan- 
tages. No  scheme  can  be  wholly  good,  neither  can  it  be 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  49 

wholly  bad.  When  only  the  good  in  schemes  of  change  is 
told,  the  very  worst  of  them  can  be  made  to  appear  as  if  as 
brilliant  as  the  very  best,  and  when  only  the  bad  is  present- 
ed, the  very  best  will  be  horrible  indeed.  With  such  one- 
sided presentations  truth  can  not  be  discovered.  The  tem- 
perance men  and  total  abstainers  are  of  great  value  to  prog- 
ress in  gathering  the  favorable  facts  of  their  schemes,  but 
their  foes  are  of  equal,  and  we  might  with  safety  say  of 

freater,  value  in  that  they  present  the  defects  and  dangers. 
Without  both,  action  would  be  unsafe  and  attempts  at  prog- 
ress dangerous.  It  is  exactly  the  same  with  all  would-be 
meddlers  of  present  conditions  and  all  excessively  conserva- 
tive people.  Free-traders  and  Protectionists,  Women's 
Righters  and  Anti- Women's  Eighters,  Greenbackers  and 
gold-bugs,  each  alike  hides  part  of  the  truth  and  always  the 
good  of  the  schemes  of  their  foes  and  the  bad  of  their  own. 
None  of  them  seems  at  all  anxious  to  get  at  the  truth. 
Laws  are  passed  by  legislators  with  the  same  reckless  dis- 
regard for  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong.  There  is  no 
weighing  of  pros  and  cons.  It  is  all  benefit  and  no  harm, 
or  they  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Perplexing  prob- 
lems are  ruled  out,  and,  with  the  simplicity  of  a  young 
robin,  all  are  expected  to  open  their  mouths  and  swallow. 
Social  science  will  in  time  alter  all  this  and  raise  up  stu- 
dents who  will  take  pleasure  in  discounting  their  own  false 
conclusions. 


50  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  DANIEL  GREENLEAF  THOMPSON  : 

In  listening  to  this  paper,  one  is  impressed  with  the  great  changes 
which  have  taken  place  within  one's  own  recollection  in  the  treatment 
of  such  subjects.  Twenty-five  years  ago  it  would  have  been  impossi- 
ble to  have  such  a  subject  discussed  along  the  lines  that  Dr.  Eccles  has 
chosen.  There  has  been  everywhere  an  entirely  different  method  of 
treating  subjects  relating  to  the  state  or  to  society.  From  the  time  of 
Aristotle  the  idea  has  prevailed  that  society  is  to  be  studied  as  a  cre- 
ation, different  in  kind  from  the  phenomena  of  the  natural  world,  and 
to  be  treated  by  different  methods.  Dr.  Eccles  has  stated  the  difficulty 
in  arriving  at  correct  results,  due  to  a  priori  reasoning.  The  trouble 
has  been,  in  one  word,  the  tyranny  of  institutions.  The  most  promi- 
nent of  these  are  the  Family,  the  State,  and  the  Church.  Each  of 
these,  before  the  scientific  method  of  study  was  adopted,  was  simply  a 
fetich.  All  were  supposed  to  be  of  supernatural  origin.  It  has  been 
the  tendency  to  make  each  an  end  to  itself,  not  a  means  to  an  end, 
which  has  brought  such  chaos.  The  family  is  of  value  only  as  it  serves 
the  people  who  compose  it.  It  may  become,  as  in  ancient  Rome,  a 
means  of  tyranny  to  individuals.  With  the  state  the  difficulty  is  more 
obvious  and  widespread.  It  was  the  old  idea  that  everybody  exists  for 
the  state.  So  with  the  Church :  it  can  not  be  criticised.  It  is  some- 
thing divine ;  everything  else  must  be  subservient  to  it.  The  study  of 
institutions  as  ends,  not  means,  has  been  a  hindrance.  When  people 
are  no  longer  deluded  by  the  idea  that  knowledge  is  given  on  authority, 
the  idea  of  the  relation  of  man  to  the  state  begins  to  change,  which 
makes  possible  the  science  of  sociology.  Evolution  teaches  that  nothing 
is  permanent,  and  that  changes  are  both  constructive  and  destructive. 
We  see,  therefore,  that  mucK  work  is  to  be  done ;  it  is  still  necessary  to 
be  on  our  guard  against  the  tyranny  of  institutions.  We  must  preserve 
the  spontaneity  of  the  individual,  and  let  him  take  the  initiative  in  the 
formation  of  a  state  in  which  all  may  have  the  most  perfect  freedom. 

MR.  Z.  SIDNEY  SAMPSON: 

My  attention  has  recently  been  called  to  a  peculiar  form  of  sociologi- 
cal bias — it  is  the  so-called  "  liberal "  bias ;  that  is,  the  bias  that  in- 
spires some  to  decry  and  belabor  the  opinions  which  they  formerly 
held  and  have  now  outgrown,  arid  which  others  still  hold.  I  have  met 
many  people  who  would  utterly  erase  every  vestige  of  what  has  pre- 


The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.  51 

ceded  them  in  religion,  politics,  or  sociology.  Mr.  Spencer  ably  treats 
this  subject  in  his  chapter  on  The  Theological  Bias,  in  the  Study  of  So- 
ciology. He  shows  how  this  extreme  iconoclastic  spirit  renders  true 
judgments  in  sociological  questions  impossible.  (Mr.  Sampson  then 
read  several  extracts  from  the  chapter  referred  to.) 

PROF.  GEORGE  GUNTON: 

In  the  paper  of  Dr.  Eccles  a  few  points  were  forced  to  the  front 
and  unduly  emphasized,  leaving  an  unsatisfactory  result.  For  in- 
stance, the  speaker  emphasized  particularly  the  point  that  all  progress 
is  made,  not  by  virtue  of  man's  efforts  and  desires,  but  in  spite  of 
them.  Then  he  blamed  the  legislators  for  what  goes  on,  though,  by 
his  theory,  it  goes  on  in  spite  of  them.  It  is  not  true  that  there  is  no 
priority  between  the  owl  and  the  egg.  There  is  an  initiative.  There 
is  a  movement  onward  or  there  could  be  no  evolution.  The  problem 
is  not  insoluble.  To  say  that  society  goes  on  in  spite  of  mankind  is  to 
take  the  subject  out  of  science  altogether.  What  is  the  difference  be- 
tween ignorance  and  knowledge  if  all  goes  on  in  spite  of  us  1  If  it  is 
true  that  things  go  on  in  spite  of  man,  why  haven't  all  nations  gone 
on  alike  ?  Asiatics  as  fast  as  Europeans  ?  The  truth  is  just  the  re- 
verse. The  evolution  of  society  goes  on  because  we  want  it  to.  All 
progress  depends  upon  human  desires.  Let  the  desire  for  change  stop, 
and  progress  stops.  Who  oppose  what  comes  ?  Only  those  whose  de- 
sires lag  behind — those  who  wish  for  no  change.  First,  a  few  have  de- 
sires for  something  new  and  begin  to  work  for  it.  By  presenting  its 
advantages  they  affect  others,  and  so  on.  The  addition  of  social  force 
goes  on  until  about  thirty  per  cent  of  the  people  are  convinced,  and 
then  the  machinery  of  society  begins  to  move.  New  movements  in 
society  are  initiated  because  the  governing  portion  of  the  community 
have  worked  for  it.  As  to  the  "  Mugwumps  "  or  independents,  Dr. 
Eccles  left  no  excuse  for  their  existence,  while  really  they  are  a  gilt- 
edged,  pretty  lot,  and  ought  to  be  useful.  The  Doctor  says  the  way  to 
improve  politics  is  to  work  inside  the  existing  party  machinery.  But 
the  function  of  the  "  Mugwump  "  is  to  agitate  things  outside  and  pre- 
vent the  machine  from  crystallizing  all  over.  The  Mugwump  as  a  di- 
rector of  affairs  would  make  a  lamentable  failure ;  but  he  does  good 
work  as  an  agitator  outside  the  parties. 

DR.  LEWIS  G.  JANES: 

Prof.  Gunton's  defense  of  the  political  independent  almost  leads  me 
to  exclaim,  "  Save  me  from  my  friends  !"  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  I 
am  a  "  Mugwump  " :  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  is  implied  by  the 
word,  but  I  am  very  sure  that  I  am  an  independent.  And  it  seems  to 


^ 
^X^  •'**  **  -*•  **  V^V. 

A 

(UNIVERSITY) 

'' 


52  TJie  Study  of  Applied  Sociology. 

me  that  he  who  fails  to  recognize  in  history  the  power  of  the  inde- 
pendent in  molding  the  course  of  affairs  is  blind  in  one  eye  at  least. 
Did  Garrison  and  Phillips  have  no  influence  in  abolishing  slavery  ? 
Have  Gough  and  Father  Matthew  done  nothing  to  make  drunken- 
ness odious  1  Could  Luther  and  Calvin  and  Melanchthon  have  re- 
mained in  the  Catholic  Church  and  fought  out  there  the  battle  for  the 
right  of  private  judgment  f  Has  the  influence  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
been  less  than  it  would  have  been  had  he  remained  within  the  pale  of 
orthodox  Judaism  f  Would  Herbert  Spencer  have  done  a  greater  work 
had  he  wrought  as  a  theologian  in  the  Church  or  as  a  politician  in  par- 
liament ?  Evolution  teaches  that  institutions  are  made  for  man,  not 
man  for  institutions ;  and  the  strong  man,  the  kingly  soul,  the  leader 
of  society,  is  he  who  will  not  barter  his  manhood  at  the  behest  of  the 
machine — be  it  sectarian  or  political.  Nor  does  man  inherit  only  the 
static  qualities  of  past  social  conditions,  as  Dr.  Eccles  would  have  us 
infer.  The  tendency  to  push  forward,  to  seek  for  better  things,  is  a 
most  important  part  of  his  inheritance.  As  Mr.  Powell  phrases  it, 
"The  eyes  of  Evolution  are  in  its  forehead."  I  agree  with  Prof. 
Gunton  that  all  progress  comes  through  the  desires  and  efforts  of  in- 
dividual workers.  Mr.  Spencer  shows  that  the  highest  morality  con- 
sists in  doing  right  freely,  not  under  compulsion,  in  accordance  with 
our  desires.  In  Luther's  phrase,  "  God  needs  strong  men  "  to  effect 
his  purposes  for  social  regeneration. 

DR.  ECCLES,  in  reply :  The  criticism  of  the  last  two  speakers  is  due 
to  a  misapprehension.  I  agree  that  it  is  much  higher  to  like  virtue 
than  to  accept  virtue  as  a  necessity ;  but  my  contention  is  that  in  so- 
cial science  such  a  course  of  reasoning  is  superstitious  and  will  lead  us 
astray.  So,  also,  the  Mugwump  who  takes  himself  out  of  the  old  party 
loses  his  grip.  He  reduces  his  opportunities  for  good.  If  the  independ- 
ent stayed  inside  his  party  he  would  finally  become  a  majority  and  exert 
more  influence  for  what  he  regards  as  right.  Prof.  Gunton  is  laboring 
under  a  delusion  in  believing  that  social  changes  are  primarily  obedient 
to  our  desires.  I  repeat  that  all  progress  is  at  the  start  in  spite  of  man's 
hopes,  ideals,  and  desires.  Man  is  a  product  of  the  past ;  he  has  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  future  except  what  the  past  gives  the  future. 
All  changes  result  from  a  balancing  of  forces.  Nature's  laws  are  im- 
mutable ;  man  can  only  conform  to  their  behests.  Every  social  change 
hurts  somebody,  even  when  it  is  for  the  better.  Every  true  sociologist 
knows  this.  We  should  therefore  try  to  see  both  sides  of  the  ledger — 
the  debit  as  well  as  the  credit  side — and  not  deceive  ourselves  by  sup- 
pressing the  evil,  and  believing  the  course  we  advocate  will  be  product- 
ive only  of  good. 


REPRESENTATIVE 
GOVERNMENT 


BY 

EDWIN   D.   MEAD 

EDITOR  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MAGAZINE 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Bryce's  The  American  Commonwealth ;  Spencer's  Justice,  and  Man 
vs.  the  State ;  Lieber's  Civil  Liberty  and  Self-Government ;  Guizot's 
History  of  the  Origin  of  Representative  Government  in  Europe; 
Maine's  Popular  Government ;  Mill's  Considerations  on  Representative 
Government;  Sterne's  Constitutional  History  and  Political  Develop- 
ment of  the  United  States ;  Cocker's  The  Government  of  the  United 
States;  Fiske's  Civil  Government  in  the  United  States,  and  American 
Political  Ideas ;  Macy's  Our  Government ;  Mowry's  Studies  in  Civil 
Government ;  Woolsey's  Political  Science ;  Wilson's  The  State ;  Free- 
man's Comparative  Politics ;  Pollock's  Introduction  to  the  Science  of 
Politics ;  Burgess's  Political  Science  and  Comparative  Constitutional 
Law ;  Sir  John  Lubbock's  Representation ;  Hare's  The  Election  of 
Representatives,  Parliamentary  and  Municipal. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

BY  EDWIN  D.  MEAD. 

I  CONGRATULATE  this  society,  in  undertaking  such  a  course 
of  lectures  as  the  present,  upon  its  return  to  more  orthodox 
practices  than  have  lately  been  common  among  us.  In  our 
extreme  jealousy  of  any  kind  of  union  of  Church  and  State 
we  have  often  fallen  into  a  very  miserable  and  mischievous 
avoidance  of  any  association  of  religion  with  politics.  This 
was  not  true  with  the  men  who  lived  the  Bible  which  we 
read ;  and  it  was  not  true  of  our  own  great  Puritan  fathers. 
It  is  hard  to  distinguish  what  is  politics  and  what  is  religion 
when  we  have  to  do  with  Moses  and  David.  Almost  the 
whole  of  Jewish  prophecy  is  politics.  We  have  made  their 
politics  our  religion.  It  is  high  time  that  we  do  that,  to  some 
extent,  with  our  own.  It  was  natural  for  our  Puritan 
fathers  to  vote  on  Monday  in  the  same  meeting-house  where 
they  prayed  on  Sunday,  because  their  voting  and  their  pray- 
ing, the  affairs  of  the  community  and  the  affairs  of  the  con- 
gregation, had  much  closer  affinity  than  is  the  case  to-day, 
I  fear,  in  Brooklyn  and  Boston.  It  is  on  Sunday  that  the 
sturdy,  independent  freemen  of  those  little  Swiss  cantons — 
the  men  of  Uri  and  the  men  of  Appenzell — come  together 
to  elect  their  magistrates  and  transact  their  public  business ; 
and  before  they  rally  at  the  voting  place  they  crowd  the 
church  for  morning  prayer.  I  do  not  think  that  they  vote 
the  worse  because  of  that  morning  prayer  in  the  church,  and 
I  do  not  think  they  pray  the  worse  because  they  are  to  pass 
from  praying  to  voting.  "  Where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is, 
there  is  liberty,"  is  the  old  Bible  text  which  Freeman  recalls 
when,  in  one  of  his  books,  he  remembers  this  Swiss  custom ; 
and  I  think  it  is  time  for  us  to  remember  in  America  that, 
if  we  are  to  expect  to  see  true  liberty  live  and  grow  here, 
then  we  must  see  to  it  that  our  politics  is  pervaded  and  con- 
trolled by  the  highest  ideals  and  the  highest  spirit  which  we 
have.  If  there  is  that  in  our  politics  which  makes  us  feel 
that  it  is  a  sacrilege  and  a  shame  to  come  into  our  churches 
with  it,  then  it  is  time  for  us  to  ask  searching  questions  and 
to  urge  some  thoroughgoing  reforms;  and  it  is  always 
5 


56  Representative  Government. 

time  to  remember  that  religion  is  here  in  the  world  for 
nothing  at  all  if  it  is  not  here  to  be  brought  directly  to  bear 
upon  the  life  of  the  people  to-day.  I  am  glad  to  see  church 
doors  flung  open  that  men  may  come  into  the  most  sacred 
places  to  consider  their  duties  to  the  state. 

Emerson  has  said  that  every  man  is  eloquent  at  least  once 
in  his  life.  This  is  a  course  of  lectures  not  meant  much,  I 
think,  for  eloquence,  but  for  instruction,  and  you  do  not 
expect  me  to  be  eloquent  upon  the  subject  of  representative 
government.  Yet,  when  one  thinks  of  the  great  name  with 
which  the  idea  of  representative  government  is  more  closely 
associated  in  history  than  with  any  other  name,  one  is 
strongly  tempted  to  let  the  one  eloquent  time  in  his  life 
come  then  and  there.  For  there  are  few  figures  in  English 
history,  at  least,  more  stirring  or  heroic  than  that  of  Simon 
de  Montfort,  who  is  properly  called  the  founder  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  who  gave  to  the  English  Parliament,  and 
so  to  representative  government  in  England,  its  full,  strong 
outlines.  It  was  De  Montfort  who,  first  turning  to  the  barons 
for  help  in  the  reforms  which  were  imperative  in  England, 
turned  then  to  the  middle  class,  to  the  land-holders  of  the 
country,  and  especially  to  the  freemen  of  the  rising  towns ; 
and  by  his  consolidation  of  the  representatives  of  these,  Par- 
liament was  fully  born.  It  has  certainly  grown  since — rep- 
resentation has  been  gradually  extended — but  it  was  now 
fully  born. 

England  had  certainly  not  been  without  a  parliament  of 
some  kind  before  De  Montfort.  The  old  Witenagemote  was  a 
parliament — that  assembly  of  wise  men  which  we  find  in  some 
shape  wherever  we  find  Teutons  at  all.  The  constitution 
of  the  Witenagemote  was  rather  informal ;  it  is  sometimes  a 
little  difficult  to  determine  just  how  much  power,  or  property, 
or  prominence  made  one  a  proper  member,  and  just  what 
excluded  another ;  but  its  powers  at  times  were  surely  very 
great,  extending  to  the  repression  of  every  abuse,  and  even 
to  the  deposing  of  kings.  These  wise  men  were  not  proxies ; 
their  assembly  can  not  be  called  a  part  of  representative 
government ;  but  it  was  a  great  safeguard  of  justice,  of  pub- 
lic right,  and  even  of  equality.  Originally  all  free  men 
might  enter  the  Witenagem.ote,  although  later  membership 
was  restricted  to  landed  proprietors.  It  was  in  earliest  times 
a  most  democratic  institution,  and  great  crises  always  tended 
to  make  it  democratic  again.  Eights  fell  into  disuse  and 
had  to  be  reasserted.  The  great  reformations  of  the  world, 


Representative  Government.  57 

the  great  revolutions  of  the  world,  have  over  and  again  been 
the  reassertions  of  privileges  which,  through  political  indo- 
lence or  negligence,  have  been  allowed  to  lapse.  This  was 
largely  true  in  the  case  of  Magna  Charta  itself,  and  wholly 
true  of  other  charters.  It  was  true  of  the  "  Great  Privilege  " 
of  Holland.  The  election  of  William  and  Mary  in  1688 
(for  election  it  was)  was  simply  a  return  to  ancient  English 
procedure,  a  new  assertion  of  the  old  doctrine  that  kings 
ruled  by  the  will  of  the  people. 

Much  as  William  the  Conqueror  and  his  Norman  barons 
did  to  curtail  the  old  Saxon  freedoms,  there  was  still  a 
great  family  likeness  between  the  councils  summoned  by 
the  kings  after  the  conquest  and  the  old  Wit enag emote  ;  and 
in  those  early  charters,  which  kept  getting  born  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  sundry  oppressions,  we  feel  much  of  the  old 
Saxon  spirit.  The  last  article  of  Magna  Charta  was  an 
article  providing  for  enforcing  the  provisions  of  the  charter, 
and  twenty-five  barons  were  to  be  elected  from  the  body  of 
the  barons  to  attend  to  this  matter.  Here  we  have  a  notable 
step,  at  least,  toward  representative  government.  The  con- 
firmations of  the  charter  which  successively  followed  its  suc- 
cessive violations  showed  how  unsafe  tyranny  was  becoming ; 
and  Edward  I's  direct  manifesto  to  the  people  in  an  impor- 
tant exigency  showed  how  powerful  a  factor  in  the  govern- 
ment public  opinion  had  already  become. 

It  was  not  the  barons  alone  who  had  place  in  Parliament, 
even  at  the  time  of  Magna  Charta  ;  knights  were  elected  to 
Parliament  in  the  county  courts.  Here,  indeed,  in  these 
institutions  connected  with  the  county  courts,  we  may  almost 
say  that  we  find  the  beginnings  of  representation  proper  in 
England.  The  knights  played  many  parts.  Long  allies  of 
the  barons,  they  then  became,  in  exigencies,  the  allies  of  the 
Crown,  and  then  the  allies  of  the  burgesses.  These  repre- 
sentatives of  the  counties  did  not  deliberate  at  first  with 
the  representatives  of  the  boroughs,  but  belonged  rather  to 
the  "Upper  House";  as  Parliament  developed  its  power, 
however,  they  gravitated  to  their  proper  place  with  the  bur- 
gesses, and  the  union  of  these  two  elements  made  the  modern 
House  of  Commons. 

The  barons,  in  those  old  times  of  the  Edwards  and  the 
Henrys,  played  various  parts,  now  standing  in  the  way  of 
the  advancement  of  the  people's  rights,  and  now  being  real 
leaders  for  liberty,  encouraging  by  their  resistance  the  peo- 
ple's resistance,  and  giving  the  people  their  political  educa- 


58  Representative  Government. 


tion.  Perhaps  the  Parliament  of  De  Montfort  represented 
in  a  roughly  fair  way  what  was  then  the  political  nation, 
giving  voice  and  rights  to  almost  all  that  had  real  capacity. 
But  presently  such  movements  as  that  of  Wat  Tyler  gave 
evidence  of  a  class  not  represented,  which  yet  had  power 
and  had  the  sense  of  rights  ;  and  such  classes  have  gone  on 
clamoring  for  power  in  England,  and  getting  power,  until 
at  last  the  House  of  Commons  has  become  in  a  very  high 
degree  a  body  really  representing  the  people  of  England. 

I  have  said  that  the  Witenagemote  was,  in  a  certain  sense, 
continued  in  the  House  of  Lords.  After  the  Conquest,  the 
great  barons  could  here  appear  by  individual  proxies  ;  the 
town  and  county  representatives  were  proxies  of  the  people. 
This  became  the  ground  of  division  into  two  houses.  The 
original  separation  was  between  the  counties  and  the  bor- 
oughs. No  idea  of  public  right  had  anything  to  do  with 
the  formation  of  the  House  of  Lords  :  it  was  the  personal 
importance  of  certain  individuals  that  created  that  house 
and  gave  individuals  their  place  there.  The  English  Par- 
liament does  not  have  its  present  constitution  in  obedience 
to  any  general  theory,  but  simply  as  a  result  of  certain  his- 
toric facts.  In  different  times  and  places  there  have  been 
three  or  four,  or  even  more  "  chambers  "  in  legislative  as- 
semblies. The  town's  delegates,  the  representatives  of  the 
"  third  estate,"  deliberated  separately  in  the  Assembly  which 
Philip  the  Fair,  of  France,  summoned  in  1302.  There 
were  six  bureaus  in  the  French  deliberations  of  1484.  The 
old  French  parliaments  were  not,  in  any  strict  or  true  sense, 
representative  bodies.  It  was  Turgot  who  first  looked 
on  representation  with  something  of  an  Englishman's  eye. 
Turgot,  if  anybody,  must  be  called  the  French  De  Mont- 
fort. 

In  England  we  see  a  rapid  decadence  of  the  power  of 
Parliament  under  the  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts.  There  were 
other  reasons  for  it  besides  the  personal  strength  of  the 
Tudor  monarchs,  but  we  will  not  enter  into  these.  It  was 
by  the  Puritans,  in  the  Commonwealth,  that  Parliament  was 
made  supreme  in  England  :  Crown  was  abolished,  House 
of  Lords  was  abolished  ;  the  House  of  Commons  alone,  a 
single  chamber,  representing  the  whole  people  of  the  state, 
became  the  sole  legislative  power. 

The  English  Commonwealth  was  a  great  prophecy,  an 
epoch  three  centuries  before  its  time  in  England,  and  Eng- 
lish history  from  that  time  to  this  has  been  a  struggle  to 


Representative  Government.  59 

realize  in  a  broader  and  a  better  way  what  its  great  dream- 
ers dreamed,  and  what,  with  those  limitations  of  their  age 
from  which  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  free  them- 
selves, they  resolutely  tried  to  do. 

Out  of  that  England  and  that  epoch  were  born  New 
England  and  America.  The  founders  of  New  England — 
Winthrop  and  Bradford  and  Endicott  and  Hooker  and  Roger 
Williams — were  men  trying  to  do  here  what  Hampden 
and  Pym  and  Cromwell  and  Milton  and  Vane  were  trying 
to  do  there.  "  It  seems  to  me  sometimes,"  says  Maurice  in 
his  noble  lectures  on  Representation,  "  as  if  New  England 
were  a  translation  into  prose  of  the  thought  that  was  work- 
ing in  Milton's  mind  from  its  early  morning  to  its  sunset." 

It  was  not  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth — the  political 
dream  of  the  Puritan — however,  which  chiefly  influenced 
the  thought  of  Hamilton  and  the  men  most  influential  at 
the  time  of  the  adoption  of  our  own  American  Constitution ; 
but  the  time  ushered  in  by  William  and  Mary — the  dream 
which  satisfied  the  Whig.  This  is  something  not  unim- 
portant to  remember.  The  fact  that  this  is  a  federal  repub- 
lic, that  we  are  a  union  of  states  as  well  as  one  great  people, 
constitutes,  indeed,  a  natural  reason  for  a  Congress  such  as 
ours,  with  its  Senate  and  its  House  of  Representatives.  Yet 
it  may  be  questioned  whether  that  Congress  would  have 
been  viewed  as  it  was  by  Hamilton  and  Madison  and  Jay 
had  their  minds  not  been  so  powerfully  influenced  by  the 
constitution  of  the  British  Parliament  with  its  Lords  and 
Commons. 

The  history  of  the  English  Parliament  itself,  from  the 
time  of  William  and  Mary  to  the  time  of  Gladstone,  has 
been  the  history  of  the  extension  of  representation,  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1831  working  the  most  conspicuous  correc- 
tion of  abuses,  and  the  extension  of  suifrage  in  the  last  dec- 
ade creating  at  last  a  Parliament  which,  as  I  have  already 
said,  may  fairly  be  considered  representative  of  the  English 
people.  There  have  been  no  better  discussions  df  the  prin- 
ciples of  suffrage  than  those  which  have  accompanied  the 
later  efforts  for  its  extension  in  England,  the  discussions 
especially  between  Mr.  Lowe  and  Mr.  Gladstone — Mr.  Lowe, 
as  representative  of  the  idea  that  the  suffrage  must  be  care- 
fully guarded,  kept  strictly  in  the  hands  of  the  most  respon- 
sible and  most  intelligent ;  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  as  represent- 
ative of  the  idea  that  that  nation  is  strongest  which  enlists 
the  greatest  possible  number  of  its  own  elements  responsibly 


60  Representative  Government. 

in  its  own  interests,  and  that  wealth  and  culture  alone  do 
not  constitute  the  sole  qualifications  for  the  best  political 
judgment,  often  carrying  with  them  a  selfishness  that  is 
more  than  an  offset  for  the  intelligence  which  may  go  with 
them.  By  virtue  of  the  fact  that  the  ministry,  the  real  ex- 
ecutive of  the  English  government,  belongs  always  to  the 
party  having  a  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  chang- 
ing from  party  to  party  as  that  majority  changes,  the  Eng- 
lish government  is  more  strictly  a  representative  govern- 
ment at  every  time  than  is  our  own,  the  ministry  always 
representing  the  forces  actually  ascendant  in  Parliament 
to-day. 

I  have  dwelt  at  this  length  upon  the  subject  of  represent- 
ative government  in  England  because  England  is  really 
the  great  exponent  of  the  idea  of  representative  government 
in  the  world.  It  is  England  that  through  the  centuries  has 
worked  out  the  idea  of  representative  government,  and  given 
it  control ;  and  through  the  example  of  England  that  that 
idea  and  control  have  passed  to  America,  and  in  varying 
degrees  to  the  states  of  Europe. 

Dwelling  upon  the  history  of  representative  government 
as  shown  in  the  development  of  Parliament,  I  have  hardly 
spoken  of  the  idea  as  finding  expression  earlier  often  in 
local  and  smaller  institutions — in  the  shiremote  and  the 
hundredmote.  But  it  is  in  these  local  institutions  that  we 
really  find  the  germ  of  the  idea.  The  history  of  the  begin- 
nings of  the  jury  system  is  really  a  chapter  in  the  history 
of  representative  government.  The  jury  was  an  institution 
which  at  the  beginning  had  almost  greater  interest  and 
value  from  the  political  standpoint  than  from  the  strictly 
legal  standpoint.  Securing  to  men,  as  it  did,  trial  by  their 
peers,  and  standing  as  a  bulwark  against  the  oppressions  of 
superior  classes,  it  played  a  great  part  in  the  development 
of  liberty  and  of  equality.  It  may  be  questioned  whether 
its  value  and  necessity  have  not  decreased  in  just  the  pro- 
portion that  its  political  aspect  has  become  unimportant, 
and  whether  much  of  the  high  regard  in  which  the  jury  is 
commonly  held  among  us  is  not  now  a  superstition. 

As  in  the  early  local  institutions  of  England  and  of 
Europe  we  find  the  germs  of  representative  government,  so 
do  we  find  them  notably  in  the  Church.  The  service  of  the 
Church,  not  only  for  the  principle  of  representation,  but  for 
democracy  altogether,  is  something  to  be  carefully  con- 
sidered. The  spectacle  of  a  great  organization  like  the 


Representative  Government.  61 

Church,  in  the  tenth  and  twelfth  and  later  centuries,  with 
men  rising  from  the  humblest  walks  of  life  to  ecclesiastical 
positions  where  they  wielded  power  equal  to  that  of  baions 
and  of  kings,  was  a  spectacle  which  could  not  have  been 
without  deep  and  universal  influence ;  and  the  parallelism 
of  theological  and  political  thought  in  the  case  of  every  such 
reformer  as  Wiclif  and  Calvin  and  Robert  Brown  should 
never  be  lost  from  sight  by  the  student  of  the  development 
of  liberty  in  Europe. 

If  I  have  confined  myself  chiefly  to  England  in  this 
historical  survey,  I  surely  would  not  give  the  impression 
that  the  struggles  for  liberty  and  the  struggles  toward  the 
representative  idea,  which  were  going  on  elsewhere  in 
Europe  quite  independent  of  English  influence,  were  un- 
important. The  history  of  Holland,  from  the  earliest  times, 
has  great  significance  here.  The  influence  of  Holland  on 
England,  through  her  close  relations  with  England  in  the 
conflict  with  Spain,  through  the  men  who  crossed  from 
England  to  help  her  fight  her  battles,  and  through  her  own 
people  who  to  escape  Spanish  oppression  flocked  across  to 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk  and  Essex,  was  much  greater  than  most 
of  us  are  in  the  habit  of  thinking.  Her  influence  upon  our 
own  colonial  thought,  upon  New  York  especially,  but  also 
upon  Connecticut  and  other  sections,  was  important.  She 
influenced  not  only  our  colonial,  but  also  our  constitutional 
period.  The  principle  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  the 
principles  of  the  separation  of  Church  and  State,  of  local 
self-government  as  we  understand  it,  of  public  schools,  of  a 
Senate,  of  a  Supreme  Court,  of  the  written  ballot,  and  of 
the  federal  system,  are  Dutch  principles  rather  than  Eng- 
lish principles.  It  was  not  for  nothing  that  our  fathers 
lived  in  Holland.* 

We  have  in  Switzerland  the  most  striking  example  of  a 
free  democratic  government,  steadily  developed  almost 
without  interruption,  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  The 
place  of  Switzerland  in  the  history  of  liberty  and  of  repre- 
sentative government  is  a  remarkable  one.  Indeed,  wher- 
ever we  find  a  Teutonic  people,  wherever  we  find  an  Aryan 
people,  we  find  institutions  which  give  hints  of  what  we  call 
representative  government.  I  think  it  was  Guizot  who  re- 
marked that  the  idea  of  representative  government  has 
hovered  over  Europe  ever  since  the  founding  of  modern 

*  I  would  call  attention  to  the  very  thorough  and  able  pamphlet  on  the  In- 
fluence of  Holland  upon  England  and  America,  by  Rev.  William  Elliot  Griffls. 


62  Representative  Government. 

states.  The  idea  in  embryo  hovered  over  Europe  earlier  far 
than  that.  We  never  come  to  sharp  beginnings  in  history. 
Back  of  every  institution  we  find  something  which  was  a 
prophecy  and  a  preparation.  In  the  Spartan  Ephors  we 
find  something  that  even  suggests  the  English  ministry, 
those  officials  really  representing  the  people  as  against  the 
kings.  In  the  Amphictyonic  Council  already  we  find  a 
forecast  of  federalism ;  and  we  may  properly  ask  ourselves 
whether  that  which  finally  robbed  the  Amphictyonic  Coun- 
cil of  its  binding  force — the  equal  voice  accorded  in  its  votes 
to  the  large  and  the  small  tribes — is  not  that  which  may 
work  the  enfeeblement  and  final  overthrow  of  our  own  Sen- 
ate. In  Rome  we  have  a  germ  of  representative  government 
in  the  institution  of  the  Tribunes — the  Tribunes  being 
elected  by  the  plebeians  and  really  their  representatives  in 
the  state. 

Turning  from  history  to  the  present,  may  we  not  say  that 
wherever  we  see  representative  government  to-day  there  we 
see  government  by  parties  ?  The  rise  and  power  of  political 
parties  becomes  a  cardinal  factor  in  the  history  of  repre- 
sentative government ;  and  perhaps  the  great  question  to- 
day in  connection  with  representative  government  is  that 
which  is  raised  by  this  aspect  of  it — the  question  of  the 
rights  of  minorities.  "  If  ever  the  free  institutions  of 
America  are  destroyed,"  wrote  De  Tocqueville,  "  that  event 
may  be  attributed  to  the  unlimited  authority  of  the  major- 
ity, which  may  at  some  time  urge  the  minorities  to  despera- 
tion and  oblige  them  to  have  recourse  to  physical  force. 
Anarchy  will  then  be  the  result;  but  it  will  have  been 
brought  about  by  despotism."  To  the  same  effect  writes 
Hamilton  in  the  Federalist,  and  Jefferson  in  his  letters  to 
Madison.  And  no  one  can  face  the  problems  raised  on 
election  day,  in  a  great  city  like  New  York,  with  the  subsi- 
dized ignorance  pouring  out  of  Bowery  lodging-houses  in 
streams  large  enough  to  submerge  the  body  of  intelligent 
voters,  without  seeing  that  we  here  touch  the  danger-spot  in 
America.  The  tendency  to  truckle  to  this  ignorance,  and 
of  letting  commonplace  men  monopolize  important  offices 
in  the  city  and  the  state,  may  easily  go  so  far  as  to  disgust 
the  better  element  with  the  results,  to  an  extent  that  might 
work  such  revolutions  in  our  polity  as  we  do  not  like  to  talk 
about.  The  gerrymandering  processes  so  common  in  all 
our  states,  whereby  a  dominant  majority  fortifies  itself  and 
perpetuates  injustice,  is  another  most  serious  menace  to  the 


Representative  Government.  63 

stability  of  our  republican  institutions,  practically  robbing, 
as  it  so  often  does,  great  sections  of  the  people  of  their  po- 
litical rights.  "  Pure  democracy,"  says  Thomas  Hare,  "  is 
the  government  of  the  whole  people  by  the  whole  people ; 
whilst  false  democracy  is  the  government  of  the  whole  people 
by  a  mere  majority  of  the  people  acting  through  representa- 
tives elected  by  that  majority,  the  minority  having  no  rep- 
resentation at  all  and  being,  in  fact,  practically  disfran- 
chised." 

The  mention  of  the  name  of  Thomas  Hare  suggests  the 
most  serious  and  important  essay  which  has  yet  been  made 
by  any  political  thinker  toward  a  system  which  shall  secure 
the  rights  of  minorities,  which  are  so  jeopardized  in  our 
modern  democracies.*  Mr.  Hare's  plan  is  so  original,  so 
revolutionary,  and  so  thorough  as  to  quite  justify  Mill's  high 
praise  of  it  in  his  work  on  Representative  Government,  still 
the  most  valuable  single  work  on  representative  government 
which  can  be  given  our  students,  as  "  among  the  very  great- 
est improvements  yet  made  in  the  theory  and  practice  of 
government." 

The  great  features  of  Mr.  Hare's  book  are  its  exposure 
of  the  unsuitableness  of  the  principle  of  geographical  divis- 
ion in  politics,  and  its  elaboration  of  a  system  whereby  men 
may  easily  combine  for  the  causes  which  they  have  most 
at  heart,  without  a  waste  of  votes.  Representation,  as  Mr. 
Hare  justly  urges,  is  designed  to  collect  the  diversities  of 
opinion  in  the  state,  not  to  record  the  preponderance  of  one 
out  of  two  or  three  opinions.  What  really  most  interests 
each  of  us,  citizens  of  Brooklyn  or  of  Boston  ?  Is  it  to  have 
one  out  of  two  doctrines  which  happen  to  be  prominent  in 
Brooklyn  or  in  Boston  represented  in  the  New  York  or 
Massachusetts  legislature  ?  Or  is  it  to  have  represented  there 
some  cause  dearer  to  us  than  either  of  the  two,  which  we 
may  hold  in  common  with  men  in  Rochester  and  Buffalo, 
or  in  Springfield  and  Worcester  ?  The  effort  in  modern 
democracy  should  be  to  make  it  easy  for  men  throughout  a 
state  to  combine  in  behalf  of  the  cause  which  they  count 
most  important,  and  to  make  every  vote  effectual  for  that 
cause.  There  is  no  lack  of  disposition  to  such  combination. 
Everywhere  we  see  the  disposition  to  voluntary  association 
in  fraternities  and  guilds  of  every  sort.  It  is  only  necessary 

*  The  Election  of  Representatives,  Parliamentary  and  Municipal.  By  Thomas 
Hare.  London,  1859.  Fourth  edition,  with  appendix,  1873.  The  seventh  chapter 
of  Mill's  Representative  Government  is  an  exposition  of  Mr.  Hare's  work. 


64  Representative  Government. 

in  our  politics  to  resort  to  those  simple  aids  which  educa- 
tion and  science  now  afford  us.  Our  methods  of  political 
combination  are  far  behind  the  time,  suited  to  an  age  and 
to  conditions  we  have  long  since  transcended.  Montesquieu 
believed  that  only  small  republics  would  ever  be  possible, 
and  Rousseau  believed  the  same,  because  they  saw  no  way  in 
which  people  over  large  areas  could  be  united  with  that 
closeness  necessary  for  vital  public  spirit  and  efficient  public 
action.  But  great  and  small  are  purely  relative  terms ;  and 
the  railroad,  the  newspaper,  and  the  telegraph  have  brought 
it  to  pass  that  the  United  States  of  America  in  1891  is  not 
politically  so  large  as  New  England  in  1789.  Yet  in  our 
voting  we  make  no  use  of  all  those  helps  to  intelligent  and 
varied  combinations  which  our  modern  conveniences  furnish. 

What  Mr.  Hare's  system  would  secure  the  voter  is  the 
privilege  of  indicating  his  first,  his  second,  and  his  third 
choice.  If  a  hundred  thousand  voters  are  to  have  ten  rep- 
resentatives, then  voters  from  everywhere  should  be  per- 
mitted to  combine  for  the  ten  thousand  necessary  for  each 
representative ;  and  when,  in  the  counting  of  votes,  the 
number  of  ten  thousand  is  reached  in  the  first  choice  of 
the  voters,  then  any  excess  should  go  to  the  second  choice, 
and  thus  no  votes  be  wasted.  Under  our  representative 
system  it  often  happens  that  fifteen  thousand  or  more 
votes  go  to  the  successful  candidate,  in  such  a  case  as  that 
supposed — five  thousand  of  the  votes  being  thus  thrown 
away. 

A  slight  examination  of  the  system  proposed  by  Mr.  Hare 
will  show  the  student  that  its  operation  would  be  exceed- 
ingly simple.  Such  objections  as  have  been  urged  against 
it  on  practical  grounds  have  been  overwhelmingly  answered 
by  Sir  John  Lubbock  and  other  defenders  of  the  system.* 

There  was  formed  in  England  several  years  ago  a  Pro- 
portional Representation  Society,  with  Sir  John  Lubbock 
as  its  president,  the  object  of  which  was  to  establish  Mr. 
Hare's  system  of  voting  in  England ;  and  the  members  of 
this  large  society  are  not  chiefly  mere  political  theorists,  but 
members  of  Parliament  and  practical  politicians. 

*  The  reader  is  referred  to  an  article  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  April,  1884, 
by  Mr.  H.  O.  Arnold  Foster,  showing  how  a  test  election  arranged  by  him  in  one 
of  the  public  schools  of  Westminster  proved  that  Mr.  Hare's  system  was  instant- 
ly understood  and  easily  put  into  practice  by  the  ordinary  pupils  of  an  English 
school.  Mr.  Hare's  statement  of  his  theory  has  been  simplified  in  a  pamphlet  by 
the  late  Prof.  Fawcett.  The  best  brief  work,  however,  upon  the  subject  of  Pro- 
portional Representation  is  the  little  book  by  Sir  John  Lubbock,  the  contents 
of  which  are  substantially  the  same  as  those  of  his  article  upon  the  subject  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century  for  April,  1884. 


Representative  Government.  65 

Nowhere  are  the  evils  of  our  present  representative  system 
so  sharply  exposed  as  by  Sir  John  Lubbock  in  his  arguments 
for  proportional  representation.  He  shows  how  a  majority 
of  twelve  thousand  in  a  Birmingham  constituency  might— 
and  this  may  still  be  true — effect  no  more  than  one  thousand 
in  another  place.  From  1868  to  1880  Lancashire  had  not 
a  single  Liberal  representative  in  Parliament,  although  forty- 
six  per  cent  of  the  voters  were  Liberals.  These  are  instances 
taken  almost  at  random  from  multitudes  equally  striking 
cited  by  Sir  John  Lubbock. 

"  America,"  says  Lubbock,  "  might  have  been  spared  a 
terrible  civil  war  if  the  principle  of  proportional  representa- 
tion had  been  recognized  in  the  composition  of  the  House 
of  Representatives.  This  was  forcibly  pointed  out  in  the 
report  unanimously  adopted  by  the  committee  of  the  United 
States  Senate  appointed  in  1869  to  consider  the  question  of 
representative  reform.  4  The  absence  of  any  provision  for 
the  representation  of  minorities  in  the  states  of  the  South, 
when  rebellion  was  plotted,  and  when  open  steps  were  taken 
to  break  the  Union,'  says  that  report,  '  was  unfortunate,  for 
it  would  have  held  the  Union  men  of  those  states  together, 
and  have  given  them  voice  in  the  electoral  colleges  and  in 
Congress.  But  they  were  fearfully  overborne  by  the  plural- 
ity rule  of  elections,  and  were  swept  forward  by  the  course 
of  events  into  impotency  or  open  hostility  to  our  cause.  By 
that  rule  they  were  shut  out  of  their  electoral  colleges. 
Dispersed,  unorganized,  unrepresented,  without  due  voice 
and  power,  they  could  interpose  no  effectual  resistance  to 
secession  and  to  civil  war.' " 

Mr.  Garfield,  speaking  in  Congress  in  1870,  said  :  "  When 
I  was  first  elected  to  Congress  in  the  fall  of  1862  the  state 
of  Ohio  had  a  clean  Republican  majority  of  about  twenty- 
five  thousand,  but  by  the  adjustment  and  distribution  of 
political  power  in  the  state  there  were  fourteen  Democratic 
representatives  upon  this  floor  and  only  five  Republicans. 
The  state  that  cast  a  majority  of  nearly  twenty-five  thou- 
sand Republican  votes  was  represented  in  the  proportion  of 
five  Republicans  and  fourteen  Democrats !  In  the  next 
Congress  there  was  no  great  political  change  in  the  popular 
vote  of  Ohio — a  change  of  only  twenty  thousand — but  the 
result  was  that  seventeen  Republican  members  were  sent 
here  from  Ohio,  and  only  two  Democrats.  We  find  that 
only  so  small  a  change  as  twenty  thousand  changed  their 
representatives  in  Congress  from  fourteen  Democrats  and 


66  Representative  Government. 

five  Republicans  to  seventeen  Republicans  and  two  Demo- 
crats !  Now  no  man,  whatever  his  politics,  can  justly  defend 
a  system  that  may  in  theory,  and  frequently  does  in  practice, 
produce  such  results  as  these." 

The  appeal  as  to  the  feasibility  and  the  success  of  a  sys- 
tem like  that  commended  by  Mr.  Hare  is  not  simply  to  the- 
ory ;  the  appeal  is  also  to  fact.  A  system  substantially  the 
same  has  been  in  successful  operation  in  Denmark  for  more 
than  thirty  years.*  We  need  not,  as  Americans,  be  sur- 
prised to  find  ourselves  in  a  matter  of  such  signal  impor- 
tance so  far  behind  a  country  like  Denmark.  The  truth  is 
— and  the  quicker  we  find  it  out  the  better  for  us — we  are 
behind  most  civilized  countries  in  a  hundred  things  in  po- 
litical administration.  We  have  just  now,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
much  more  to  learn  from  other  countries  than  we  have  to 
teach  them.  We  are  vastly  behind  England  and  Germany 
and  France  in  the  fundamentally  important  matter  of  mu- 
nicipal organization.  We  are  behind  even  a  new  country 
like  Australia  in  a  score  of  things.  It  is  from  Australia 
that  we  have  recently  borrowed  our  new  ballot  method. 
We  might  wisely  borrow  from  Australia  much  besides.  Aus- 
tralia has  what  we  have  not — an  eight-hour  law ;  the  Austra- 
lian state  owns  its  own  railroads,  and  generally  makes  the 
ends  of  government  the  good  of  the  people  to  an  extent 
which  we  do  not  approach.  We  may  take  satisfaction,  as 
Americans,  in  remembering  that  the  ideas  of  Mr.  Hare  in 
England  were  really  anticipated  to  a  great  extent  in  a  little 
book  by  Mr.  J.  Francis  Fisher,  of  Philadelphia.  It  would 
be  far  more  creditable  to  America,  however,  if  she  would 
anticipate  England  in  putting  into  operation  this  system  of 
representation,  which,  when  once  put  into  operation,  will, 
like  the  Australian  ballot  system,  make  us  blush  and  won- 
der at  our  old  clumsiness. 

Nothing  could  be  better  calculated  than  the  Hare  system 
to  break  up  the  sharp  party  divisions  which  are  the  curse  of 
our  present  political  life,  with  their  exaggerated  and  ficti- 
tious antagonisms.  Of  special  service  would  it  prove  in  the 
municipal  field,  which  is,  to  my  thinking,  the  most  critical 
field  with  us  in  America  at  present.  Nowhere  is  representa- 
tive government  such  a  sham  as  in  our  cities.  With  the  fa- 
cilities afforded  by  a  system  of  proportional  representation,  it 

*  The  father  of  the  Denmark  system  is  Mr.  Andrae,  who  was  at  the  time  of  its 
inauguration  (1855)  the  Minister  of  Finance.  A  full  account  of  its  operation  may 
be  found  in  the  appendix  to  Sir  John  Lubbock's  book.  Reference  to  it  may  also 
be  found  in  the  preface  to  the  third  edition  of  Mr.  Hare's  own  work. 


Representative  Government.  67 

would  be  possible  for  all  the  good  elements  in  a  city  to  com- 
bine in  ways  that  should  make  every  vote  count ;  and  ten 
good  men  in  a  council  are  always  a  match  for  twenty  bad 
ones — such  is  the  law  of  intelligent  force. 

One  can  not  fail  to  notice  how  admirably  this  Hare  system 
is  adapted,  also,  to  those  ends  proposed  by  the  socialistic 
thinkers  of  our  time.  As  we  look  backward  to  the  great 
towns  of  the  later  middle  ages,  we  are  struck  by  the  great 
part  which  the  trade  guilds  played  in  their  organization  and 
government ;  the  trade  guilds  almost  take  the  place,  with 
respect  to  representation  in  the  government,  which  our  par- 
ties take  to-day.  They  were  much  nearer  right  than  we. 
A  Republican  or  a  Democrat,  as  such,  has  no  proper  place 
in  the  Common  Council  of  Brooklyn  or  of  Boston,  because 
the  governments  of  Brooklyn  and  of  Boston  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  any  party  question,  and  the  perpetua- 
tion or  tolerance  of  a  system  which  assumes  that  they  do 
accuses  us  of  incapacity  and  childishness.  We  want  to  see 
represented  in  our  Common  Councils  real  and  not  fictitious 
interests ;  and  we  want  to  make  it  easy  for  all  good  men  to 
combine  for  the  representation  there  of  the  interests  which 
for  the  time  they  deem  the  most  important,  be  they  the  in- 
terests of  labor,  the  interests  of  education,  or  the  interests 
of  some  particular  public  work. 

Think  as  we  may  of  socialism,  it  can  not  well  be  denied 
that  most  of  the  wise  legislation  of  our  day  is  of  a  socialistic 
character ;  and  whatever  else  a  system  of  representation 
may  be,  it  must  be  of  a  kind  not  unsnited  to  this  tendency. 
We  shall  get  over  fearing  socialism  when  we  get  over  fear- 
ing names  and  think  of  things.  Paternalism  is  a  name  that 
scares  many  estimable  folk.  Socialism  under  a  despotism 
may  be  paternalism,  and  may  even  be  the  means  of  consoli- 
dating tyranny.  Socialism  in  a  true  republic  is  simply  the 
efficient  exercise  of  fraternalism — a  people's  way  of  doing 
its  own  business  economically  and  kindly,  instead  of  selfish- 
ly and  wastefully.  The  State  is  not  something  outside  of 
us,  although,  still  victims  of  tradition  and  schooled  in  litera- 
ture born  of  other  political  conditions,  we  sometimes  permit 
ourselves  to  think  of  it  so.  The  State  is  simply  ourselves  in 
our  corporate  capacity.  "  Socialism,"  said  Lowell,  "  is  the 
practical  application  of  Christianity  to  life  " ;  and  Emerson, 
in  other  ways,  has  said  the  same.  "  For  my  own  part," 
said  Mill,  "  not  believing  in  universal  selfishness,  I  have  no 
difficulty  in  admitting  that  communism  would  even  now  be 


68  Representative  Government. 

practicable  among  the  elite  of  mankind,  and  may  become  so 
among  the  rest."  Whatever  names  we  like  to  use,  it  is  very 
sure  that  everywhere  a  higher  view  of  the  State  is  dawning, 
and  that  men  everywhere  are  sick  of  the  presupposition  in 
politics  of  universal  selfishness.  We  must  begin  from  now 
on  to  ask  ourselves  in  our  politics  where  the  presupposition 
of  brotherhood  will  lead,  and  what  system  and  method  will 
best  fit  that. 

The  rights  of  minorities,  then — the  proportional  repre- 
sentation of  every  class  and  every  cause — is  one  great  ques- 
tion connected  with  representative  government  to-day.  An- 
other is  the  question  of  proper  qualification  for  suffrage. 
How  shall  this  be  settled  so  as  to  best  serve  at  once  the  in- 
terest of  order  and  the  interest  of  progress — the  two  inter- 
ests which  every  intelligent  state  has  always  to  consider  to- 
gether ? 

"  The  suffrage,"  says  Mr.  Hare,  "  should  be  regarded  as  a 
right  of  value,  and  one  not  thrown  heedlessly  to  every  man. 
It  should  be  felt  that  it  is  a  right  that  the  State  reserves 
for  its  worthiest  citizens,  and  in  conferring  which  it  adopts 
all  the  tests  of  quality  and  of  worth  that  are  consistent  with 
placing  the  suffrage  on  a  broad  and  comprehensive  basis." 
This  statement  will  pass  well  enough  as  that  of  the  position 
also  of  Mr.  Mill ;  and  it  is  a  good  enough  statement  of  what 
I  conceive  to  be  the  true  doctrine  of  suffrage,  if  we  define 
clearly  what  we  mean  by  a  "broad  and  comprehensive 
basis."  The  doctrine  is,  that  a  man  should  not  be  allowed 
to  have  a  voice  in  public  matters  by  mere  virtue  of  being  a 
man,  but  only  by  virtue  of  capacity  and  character.  No  bar- 
riers to  suffrage  should  be  erected  or  permitted  which  every 
earnest  man  or  woman  may  not  easily  transcend ;  but  no 
principle  of  true  democracy  commands,  and  no  principle  of 
common-sense  excuses,  the  indiscriminate  gift  of  political 
power  to  ignorance  and  vice.  We  value  in  this  world  what 
we  earn.  We  value  that  which  public  opinion  and  public 
usage  stamp  as  valuable  and  serious  and  sacred ;  and  we 
have  dealt  with  the  suffrage  in  America  in  a  careless  way 
not  calculated  to  make  those  who  come  to  its  exercise  feel 
that  it  is  a  sacred  or  a  serious  thing.  But  we  have  begun, 
as  Lowell  wrote  in  the  most  patriotic  and  American  of  his 
essays,  "obscurely  to  recognize  that  things  do  not  go  of 
themselves,  and  that  popular  government  is  not  in  itself  a 
panacea,  is  no  better  than  any  other  form  except  as  the  vir- 
tue and  wisdom  of  the  people  make  it  so,  and  that  when 


Representative  Government.  69 

men  undertake  to  do  their  own  kingship,  they  enter  upon 
the  dangers  and  responsibilities  as  well  as  the  privileges  of 
the  function.  At  present,  we  trust  a  man  with  making 
constitutions  on  less  proof  of  competence  than  we  should 
demand  before  we  gave  him  our  shoe  to  patch.  We  have 
nearly  reached  the  limit  of  the  reaction  from  the  old  no- 
tion, which  paid  too  much  regard  to  birth  and  station  as 
qualifications  for  office,  and  have  touched  the  extreme  point 
in  the  opposite  direction,  putting  the  highest  human  func- 
tions up  at  auction  to  be  bid  for  by  any  creature  capable  of 
going  on  two  legs.  We  have  got  to  learn  that  statesmanship 
is  the  most  complicated  of  all  arts,  and  to  go  back  to  the 
apprenticeship  system,  too  hastily  abandoned."  It  is,  I  be- 
lieve, unsafe  and  wrong — a  wrong  to  the  State  and  a  wrong 
as  well  to  every  individual  concerned — to  confer  the  suffrage 
upon  any  in  this  republic  who,  with  the  facilities  which  every 
state  provides  or  should  provide,  can  not  read  the  newspa- 
pers ;  and  it  is  unsafe  and  wrong  to  confer  it  upon  any  com- 
ing from  foreign  lands  to  be  fellow-citizens  with  us  until 
they  shall  have  lived  here  long  enough  to  understand  our 
institutions  and  to  have  become  at  home  in  the  political 
situation.  It  is  not  by  suffrage  alone  that  good  opinion 
makes  itself  influential,  and  any  condition  that  might  be 
severe  for  a  few  individuals  should  and  would  be  willingly 
accepted  by  them  for  the  sake  of  the  common  good.  A 
property  qualification  for  suffrage,  such  as  has  until  recently 
existed  in  Rhode  Island,  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  spirit 
of  our  time,  no  more  than  Mill's  doctrine  of  giving  extra 
votes  to  superior  persons — persons  of  high  culture  and  posi- 
tion ;  but  the  grounds  on  which  many  arguments  against  the 
Eoll  tax  are  urged  are  not,  to  my  thinking,  valid  or  pro- 
Hind,  not  based  upon  the  truest  or  the  most  democratic 
theory  of  the  State.  Is  not  such  a  tax,  small  as  it  is,  a  salu- 
tary recognition  and  reminder  of  the  costly  benefits  which 
the  state  confers  upon  even  the  least  fortunate  citizen,  and 
is  not  the  obligation  to  its  payment  a  continual  education 
in  independence,  a  continual  symbol  and  sacrament  of  inde- 
pendence, for  which  the  exemption  from  it  is  a  poor  offset  ? 
Nothing  here  said  is  inconsistent  with  the  maintenance 
of  the  suffrage  on  a  "  broad  and  comprehensive  basis."  In 
such  a  basis  I  earnestly  believe.  I  do  not  believe  in  any 
aristocracy  in  a  republic,  be  it  an  aristocracy  of  scholars  or 
any  other.  A  broad  basis  of  suffrage  is  the  best  and  is  the 
safest,  because  it  is  the  best  basis  of  political  education,  and 


70  Representative  Government. 

that  is  the  best  government  which  does  best  educate  its  peo- 
ple. But  as  every  good  system  of  education  has  its  stand- 
ards, and  is  strict  and  sensible  in  their  application,  leaving 
nothing  at  loose  ends,  so  should  it  be  in  the  great  school  of 
the  nation,  in  the  education  which  comes  through  politi- 
cal responsibility.  The  importance  of  political  responsibility 
to  political  education  must  never  be  forgotten.  He  who 
keeps  in  close  touch  with  the  people  during  the  great  politi- 
cal campaigns,  witnessing  the  intentness  with  which,  at  the 
party  rallies  and  mass  meetings,  the  most  searching  and 
thorough  discussions  of  issues  upon  which  judgment  must 
presently  be  passed  at  the  polls  are  followed  by  the  thou- 
sands of  all  sorts  and  conditions,  to  whom  such  discussions 
under  other  conditions  would  be  dull  and  impossible,  is  not 
likely  to  forget  this.  The  educational  value  of  the  suffrage 
has  been  most  wisely  emphasized,  indeed,  by  those  political 
thinkers  who  have  realized  most  keenly  the  importance  of 
keeping  the  suffrage  intelligent  and  pure  by  proper  safe- 
guards. "  It  has  long,  perhaps  throughout  the  entire  dura- 
tion of  British  freedom,"  says  Mill,  "  been  a  common  form 
of  speech,  that  if  a  good  despot  could  be  insured,  despotic 
monarchy  would  be  the  best  form  of  government.  I  look 
upon  this  as  a  radical  and  most  pernicious  misconception  of 
what  good  government  is.  Setting  aside  the  fact  that  for 
one  despot  who  now  and  then  reforms  an  abuse  there  are 
ninety-nine  who  do  nothing  but  create  them,  those  who  look 
in  any  such  direction  for  the  realization  of  their  hopes  leave 
out  of  the  idea  of  good  government  its  principal  element, 
the  improvement  of  the  people  themselves.  One  of  the 
benefits  of  freedom  is  that  under  it  a  ruler  can  not  pass  by 
the  people's  minds  and  amend  their  affairs  without  amend- 
ing them." 

Besides  the  question  of  proper  qualification  for  suffrage 
and  the  question  of  the  rights  of  minorities,  there  is  a  third 
question  of  the  highest  importance  everywhere  to-day  in 
connection  with  representative  government,  and  especially 
important  here  in  America:  the  question  of  the  proper 
adjustment  of  executive  and  legislative  power.  "  All  real 
government  is  personal,"  says  Frederick  Harrison,  in  his 
book  on  Order  and  Progress,  making  the  thesis  the  sub- 
ject of  a  chapter.  I  believe  it  to  be  true  at  least  that  there 
can  be  no  efficient  government  where  the  executive  is  not 
intrusted  with  large  powers,  and  that  no  democracy  is  yet 
well  educated  which  is  not  disposed  to  intrust  its  executive 


Representative  Government.  71 

with  large  powers  and  keep  from  meddling  with  smaller 
matters.  Said  Tacitus,  speaking  of  the  political  customs 
of  our  Teutonic  forefathers,  "  On  smaller  matters  the  chiefs 
debate ;  on  greater  matters,  all  men  " ;  and  the  description 
is  a  good  definition  of  a  true  democracy,  if  by  chiefs  we 
understand  the  executive  committee  that  is  charged  with  the 
transaction  of  public  business.  That  is  not  a  true  or  well- 
educated  democracy  which  is  meddlesome  and  restless,  and 
which  does  not  respect  and  insist  upon  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience and  discipline  and  skill  in  its  important  offices; 
whose  citizens  are  not  able  to  bring  to  bear  upon  their  poli- 
tics principles  as  sound  and  sensible  as  those  which  they 
apply  to  their  business  and  the  common  affairs  of  life.  In 
every  province  and  phase  of  our  political  life  we  see  this 
lack  of  the  common  sense  which  our  people  use  in  other 
provinces.  Each  new  election  and  each  political  campaign 
forces  upon  our  attention  the  rapid  growth  among  us  of 
one  of  the  greatest  of  such  political  evils — that  of  quick  and 
sudden  rotation  in  office,  involving  as  it  does  the  keeping  of 
our  public  affairs  more  and  more  in  the  hands  of  inexperi- 
enced men.  The  City  Council,  the  State  Legislature,  the 
national  House  of  Representatives,  is  made  up  in  ever  and 
ever  greater  proportion  of  men  new  to  the  duties,  men  serv- 
ing but  a  single  short  term,  men  not  re-elected.  These 
offices  are  coming  more  and  more  to  be  looked  upon  not  as 
places  for  service — simple,  hard,  and  faithful  service  for  the 
people — but  as  goals  of  personal  ambition,  as  dignities  and 
honors  to  decorate  the  official,  as  stepping-stones  to  higher 
things.  From  the  little  circle  in  the  ward,  on  and  up,  the 
imperious  feeling  is  that  each  in  the  ambitious  set  must 
have  his  turn ;  and  this  feeling  demands  that  the  present 
servant  shall  make  way  just  as  he  has  acquired  that  degree 
of  experience  which  is  calculated  to  make  his  service  valu- 
able. The  result  of  all  this  is  that  our  government  in  all 
its  branches,  from  municipal  to  national,  is  rapidly  becom- 
ing a  government  of  amateurs.  The  permission  in  the  other 
affairs  of  life  of  the  methods  which  we  permit  in  our  politi- 
cal business  would  be  regarded  as  trifling  and  well-nigh  in- 
sane. In  our  politics  itself,  it  is  bringing  it  to  pass  that 
the  strong  men  of  the  city  no  longer  sit,  in  any  large  num- 
ber, in  the  council — in  this  respect  how  lamentably  behind 
Birmingham  and  Manchester  and  London  are  Boston,  New 
York,  and  Chicago ! — and  that  our  legislatures  are  deteri- 
orating. The  strong  man  does  not  come  up  there  again 
6 


72  Representative  Government. 

and  again  from  the  country  town.  He  ought  to  come. 
When  we  get  a  good  man  into  office,  we  ought  to  keep  him 
there,  instead  of  dismissing  him  just  as  he  has  learned  the 
ropes  and  knows  how  to  serve  us  well.  It  is  ridiculous  to 
make  a  new  man  mayor  of  the  city  each  new  year.  No 
man  can  learn  the  city's  business  and  fit  himself  to  direct 
it  in  a  year.  Keep  him  there  six  years — then  we  shall  have 
Quincys  there.  Keep  the  good  governor  twenty  years,  if  he 
will  serve — then  we  shall  have  Bradfords  and  Winthrops. 
But  a  democracy  that  can  not  be  practical,  that  does  not 
appreciate  experience,  that  keeps  the  sophomore  in  the 
majority,  advertises  its  incompetence  and  invites  disaster. 

This  society  has  devoted  much  time,  in  years  past,  to  the 
study  of  Herbert  Spencer.  Herbert  Spencer  wrote  an  article 
on  ^Representative  Government  for  the  Westminster  Keview 
thirty  years  ago  or  more  (1857).  He  said  in  that  article :  "  To 
the  question.  What  is  representative  government  for?  our 
reply  is :  It  is  good,  especially  good,  good  above  all  others, 
for  doing  the  things  which  a  government  should  do ;  it  is 
bad,  especially  bad,  bad  above  all  others,  for  doing  the 
things  which  a  government  should  not  do."  Carlyle  him- 
self could  not  arraign  democracy  for  its  weaknesses  and  sins 
more  sharply  than  Mr.  Spencer  does  in  this  article ;  but  he 
exposes  with  equal  eloquence  and  with  equal  detail  the  evils 
of  despotism,  which  Carlyle  was  not  often  disposed  to  do. 
He  recognizes  the  great  services  of  representative  govern- 
ment everywhere  in  securing  justice ;  but  he  thinks  he  de- 
tects everywhere  among  those  peoples  where  the  system 
obtains,  a  tendency  to  over-legislation  and  constant  meddling 
with  a  thousand  things  with  which  the  great  body  of  those 
so  meddling  are  not  able  to  deal  wisely  or  expertly,  yet 
which  they  are  unwilling  to  intrust  to  those  who  are,  or  to 
leave  to  take  care  of  themselves  in  natural  order,  outside  of 
politics.  Thus  Mr.  Spencer  finds  here  an  illustration  of  his 
theory,  that  gain  in  one  function  is  loss  in  others.  The 
article,  as  a  whole,  is  of  the  same  character  as  many  that  Mr. 
Spencer  has  written  since,  the  purpose  and  spirit  of  it  the 
same  as  those  of  the  discussion  in  his  recent  work,  "  Man 
versus  the  State."  It  is  strongly  opposed  to  the  more  or  less 
socialistic  drift  of  most  of  the  significant  political  thought 
of  our  time,  and  it  does  not,  to  my  thinking,  reflect  the 
highest  and  truest  conception  of  the  State ;  but  it  does  show 
with  power  that  the  success  of  a  democracy  must  lie  in  its 
power  of  self-control  and  self -education,  and  in  the  intelli- 


Representative  Government.  73 

gent  and  business-like  delegation  of  political  offices.  And 
this  is  what  almost  every  sagacious  man  is  urging,  who  deals 
with  the  problems  of  democracy  to-day.  It  is  urged  in  a 
score  of  recent  books,  like  Mr.  Stickney's  "A  True  Republic  " ; 
it  is  urged  by  Mr.  Low  with  reference  to  municipal  govern- 
ment in  New  York  and  Brooklyn ;  it  is  urged  by  Governor 
Russell  with  reference  to  state  government  in  Massachu- 
setts. But  the  whole  point  was  put  by  Mr.  Mill,  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  his  work  on  Representative  Government — in 
many  respects  the  greatest  chapter  of  that  great  work — with 
a  distinctness  and  completeness  which  have  not  since  been 
surpassed.  "  No  progress  at  all  can  be  made  toward  a  skilled 
democracy,"  said  Mr.  Mill,  "  unless  the  democracy  are  will- 
ing that  the  work  which  requires  skill  should  be  done  by 
those  who  possess  it "  ;  and  he  makes  plain  the  radical  dis- 
tinction between  controlling  the  business  of  government  and 
actually  doing  it.  It  is  the  failure  to  recognize  this  distinc- 
tion that  constantly  betrays  democracies  into  the  bad  habit 
of  voting  for  large  numbers  of  officers,  concerning  whom  it 
is  impossible  that  any  large  number  of  voters  should  have 
adequate  knowledge.  So  far  from  enabling  a  community  to 
effectually  control  its  business,  this  is  the  very  means  to  pre- 
vent effectual  control  and  to  make  easy  such  combinations 
among  political  workers  as  shall  defeat  the  desires  and  will 
of  the  people.  A  true  democracy  will  elect  few  officers,  will 
give  these  great  powers,  and  will  thus  be  able  to  hold  them 
to  clear  and  strict  responsibility.  The  best  government  in 
America  to-day  is  the  national  government — better  than 
any  state  government  or  any  city  government,  and  better 
precisely  because  its  officials,  who  have  great  duties,  have 
great  powers,  and  responsibility  can  always  be  accurately 
fixed.  A  true  democracy  needs  no  safeguard,  no  veto,  and  no 
weapon  but  the  next  election. 

What  is  representative  government  in  its  essential  nature  ? 
Is  it  simply  an  instrument  of  convenience,  by  which  a  large 
democracy  does  the  things  which  a  large  democracy  can  do 
only  so,  but  which  a  small  democracy  does  otherwise  ?  An  in- 
strument of  convenience  it  certainly  is,  the  only  system  by 
which  large  communities  to-day  can  have  self-government. 
It  is  a  system  which  has  schooled  democracies  to  breadth :  for 
representative  government  is  impossible  to  a  people  that  can 
not  look  beyond  parochial  and  petty  affairs  to  general  and  dis- 
tant interests.  And  while  rational  society  is  still  in  the 
making,  representative  government  is  practically  at  least, 


74  Representative  Government. 

what  such  thinkers  as  Guizot  hold  it  to  be  essentially  and  al- 
ways, a  method  of  creating  a  governing  class  better  than  the 
general  body  politic.  "  Representation,"  says  Guizot,  "  is  not 
an  arithmetical  machine  to  collect  and  count  individual 
wills  " — the  individual  will,  as  he  justly  argues,  is  not  the  test 
in  anything — "  but  a  process  by  which  public  reason  may  be 
extracted  from  the  bosom  of  society."  The  representative 
body,  according  to  this  thought,  is  something  which  stands 
between  an  absolute  executive  and  the  demos.  The  holders 
of  this  theory  in  its  extremest  form  are  the  stout  defenders 
of  the  bicameral  system,  with  great  stress  upon  the  exclu- 
siveness  and  power  of  senates,  and  the  advocates  of  double 
elections,  electoral  colleges,  and  all  those  institutions  and 
processes  whereby  "public  reason"  is  boiled  down  and 
strained,  and  finds  efficient  expression  as  far  as  possible  from 
its  original  source. 

I  do  not  conceive  this  theory  of  representative  government 
to  be  the  truest  one  ;  and  it  is  not  that  which  can  make  the 
best  appeal  to  the  logic  of  events  and  tendencies  to-day. 
As  conveniences  become  perfected  and  multiplied,  and  the 
people  are  brought  into  close  and  easy  relations  with  the 
political  machinery,  we  see  everywhere  their  tendency  to 
assume  immediate  control  of  it,  the  tendency  everywhere  to 
do  away  with  what  is  mediate  and  complex.  The  electoral 
college  so  painfully  elaborated  by  the  framers  of  our  Constitu- 
tion for  the  election  of  the  President  has  become  a  farce. 
The  wires  which  carry  messages  each  hour  from  capital  to 
capital,  and  from  continent  to  continent,  are  reducing  envoys 
extraordinary  and  ministers  plenipotentiary  to  the  merest 
clerks.  The  conditions  of  diplomacy  in  the  days  of  Benja- 
min Franklin  and  John  Jay  were  a  whole  world  removed 
from  those  of  the  time  of  Robert  Lincoln  and  Whitelaw 
Reid.  All  matters  of  moment  between  nations  are  settled 
now  directly  by  their  state  departments,  and  it  is  a  question 
even  whether  the  now  almost  empty  form  of  diplomatic  resi- 
dence will  much  longer  be  kept  up.  In  matters  of  legislation 
we  see  some  very  significant  phenomena — most  significant, 
perhaps,  that  of  the  referendum  in  Switzerland,  the  provision 
whereby,  upon  the  petition  of  a  certain  number  of  voters,  at 
present  I  think  thirty  thousand,  any  act  of  the  national  legis- 
lature must  be  submitted  to  the  popular  vote  for  approval  or 
disapproval.  This  provision,  contrary  to  many  prophecies, 
has  not  encouraged  anything  disorderly  or  radical  in  politi- 
cal procedure;  it  has  almost  always  been  invoked,  it  is 


Representative  Government.  75 

conceded,  in  conservative  interests — and  perhaps  a  sufficient 
safeguard  against  its  too  free  exercise  will  always  lie  in  the 
discredit  at  caching  to  a  party  or  cause  which  invokes  it 
rashly  or  disastrously.  In  the  latest  state  constitutions  in 
our  own  republic,  as,  for  instance,  those  recently  adopted  by 
North  and  South  Dakota,  Washington,  and  Montana,  the  ex- 
ecutive powers  are  made  very  large,  although  many  execu- 
tive offices — I  believe  mistakenly — are  made  elective ;  while 
the  legislative  power  is  greatly  limited  by  the  extremely 
numerous  and  detailed  provisions  of  the  constitutions,  ex- 
tending to  so  much  which  in  the  older  states  has  been  left 
to  the  realm  of  statute  law.  In  the  newer  city  charters  we 
see  the  disposition  to  dispense  with  second  chambers  and  to 
plan  how  to  give  the  most  efficient  constitution  to  a  council 
of  a  single  house. 

All  this  points  to  a  much  more  direct  control  of  the  gov- 
ernment by  the  people,  and  to  an  approach,  through  the 
modern  conveniences,  back  to  the  standpoint  and  practice 
of  a  pure  democracy,  and  suggests  the  inquiry  whether  rep- 
resentative government,  so  far  as  it  be  anything  other  than 
an  instrument  of  convenience,  is  other  than  a  school  wherein 
pure  democracy  can  broaden  itself  and  train  itself  to  the 
capacity  to  dispense  with  it — whether,  in  a  word,  when  a 
democratic  society  or  state  has  become  mature  and  wholly 
rational,  its  forms  will  not  be  of  a  character  much  more  like 
those  of  a  pure  and  primitive  democracy  than  like  those  of 
any  subsequent  period  in  the  educational  process.  I  am 
speaking  of  ultimate  things  and  general  principles ;  but 
general  principles  upon  the  theory  of  government  are  what 
each  citizen  should  endeavor  to  settle  for  himself,  and  let 
them  govern  him  in  his  dealings  with  particular  and  proxi- 
mate reforms.  Pascal  said  :  "  Plurality  which  does  not  reduce 
itself  to  unity  is  confusion ;  unity  which  is  not  the  result  of 
plurality  is  tyranny."  It  is  one  of  the  best  expressions  of 
the  idea  of  perfected  representative  government,  and  of  per- 
fected democracy.  A  question  always  profitable  in  deter- 
mining our  theories  and  in  determining  the  direction  of 
our  influence  is  the  question :  How  would  it  be  if  the  whole 
mass  were  in  accord  with  right  ? 

If  we  ask  what  important  contributions  the  United  States 
has  made  to  the  development  of  representative  government, 
we  may  say  that  one  contribution  of  the  highest  importance 
is  our  federal  system,  surpassing  in  extent,  in  flexibility,  and 
in  strength  all  similar  efforts  in  history.  Arising  naturally 


76  Representative  Government. 

out  of  the  historical  conditions  of  our  colonial  existence,  the 
system  has  extended  itself  across  a  continent,  as  tract  after 
tract  has  been  added  to  the  national  domain ;  and  the  bal- 
ance of  national  and  local  powers  as  adjusted  by  the  fathers 
seems  suited  to  universal  application,  pointing  the  way  to 
the  federation  of  the  world  of  which  the  dreamers  dream 
and  poets  sing.  Does  not  our  Supreme  Court  also,  a  cre- 
ation of  bold  originality  and  of  the  greatest  importance  in 
our  political  system,  adjusting  differences  between  state  and 
state  and  state  and  nation,  point  the  way  to  the  interna- 
tional tribunal  which  must  play  a  part  so  prominent  and 
powerful  in  that  greater  federation  ? 

With  reference  to  the  American  federal  system  one  seri- 
ous problem  does,  I  believe,  confront  us,  or  will  confront  us 
in  a  near  future — the  problem  of  the  Senate.  Whatever 
the  necessities  which  compelled  an  equal  ranking  of  the 
states  in  the  Senate  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution, the  concession  there  to-day  of  the  same  power  to 
small  states  and  great,  to  Delaware  and  Illinois,  to  New 
Jersey  and  New  York,  can  not  well  be  defended  as  theoreti- 
cally right ;  and  it  surely  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  exigen- 
cies which  would  provoke  most  serious  disaffection  with  the 
system.  This  disaffection  would  be  tempered  if  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Senate  itself  remained  high,  for  the  personal  ele- 
ment is  always  of  great  import  in  politics,  successfully  coun- 
teracting the  most  serious  systematic  opposition.  But,  un- 
fortunately, there  is  no  phenomenon  in  our  political  life  at 
present  so  striking  or  so  mournful  as  the  decay  of  the  Sen- 
ate, in  ability  and  character.  The  Senate  is  surely  not  with- 
out men  of  ability  and  character — we  do  not  forget  such 
men  as  Mr.  Sherman  and  Mr.  Hoar ;  but  such  men  are  rap- 
idly becoming  lost  from  sight  in  the  great  crowd  of  advent- 
urers and  millionaires,  who  constitute  so  startling  a  contrast 
to  the  dignified  body  of  half  a  century  ago.  A  startling 
thing  it  surely  is  to  see  a  man  like  Mr.  Evarts  succeeded 
here  in  the  Empire  State — dead  as  Mr.  Evarts  has  been  in 
the  Senate — by  a  man  like  Mr.  Hill,  a  man  who  never 
spoke  a  significant  word,  never  took  lead  in  any  significant 
public  cause,  and  never  showed  the  commonest  symptom  of 
any  kind  of  greatness.  In  Pennsylvania — the  Keystone 
State,  as  we  call  it — the  case  is  as  bad  as  in  New  York,  both 
its  senators  men  who  never  said  one  word  or  did  one  good 
thing  that  any  man  remembers,  the  one  a  notorious  political 
spoilsman,  the  other  a  rich  man,  merely  that  and  nothing 


Representative  Government.  77 

more.  Passing  to  our  third  state  in  rank — Ohio — the  cir- 
cumstances attending  the  entrance  of  Mr.  Payne  and  Mr. 
Brice  to  the  Senate  are  too  fresh  in  your  recollection  to 
need  recounting ;  and  at  this  time  we  see  a  disposition  in 
nearly  half  the  Republicans  of  the  Ohio  Legislature  to  elect 
Mr.  Foraker  to  the  Senate  instead  of  John  Sherman.  I 
will  not  proceed  with  this  unpleasant  bill  of  particulars. 
The  main  point  is  not  that  mediocrity  and  adventurism 
gravitate  to  the  Senate  as  they  do.  The  main  point  is  that 
the  domineering  moneyed  interests  of  the  country,  the  bar- 
ons of  our  great  monopolies,  are  pushing  their  way  into  the 
Senate,  as  the  place  where  influence  is  most  concentrated,  to 
an  extent  that  bids  fair  to  soon  make  the  Senate  chiefly  a 
gathering  of  millionaires,  a  rich  man's  club,  a  House  of 
Lords.  Only  such  a  House  of  Lords,  with  simply  cash  cre- 
dentials, would  be  far  less  venerable  for  a  hundred  reasons 
than  its  English  prototype,  which  progressive  Englishmen 
are  now  planning  how  to  get  rid  of — reasons  such  as  moved 
a  radical  like  Cobbett,  contemplating  the  mournful  increase 
of  a  vulgar  and  absorbing  commercialism  among  the  Com- 
mons, to  exclaim  in  a  mood  which  we  can  at  least  under- 
stand :  "  Thank  God,  we  have  a  House  of  Lords ! " 

It  has  been  rightly  said  that  the  character  of  a  repre- 
sentative government  is  fixed  in  the  long  run  by  the  consti- 
tution of  the  popular  house.  It  will  become  more  and  more 
important  with  us  what  kind  of  men  we  send  to  the  House 
of  Representatives.  It  is  unlikely  that  we  shall  see  the  Sen- 
ate abolished,  at  least  at  any  date  so  early  as  to  make  it 
necessary  for  me  to  discuss  that  contingency  here,  although 
some  of  us  may  live  to  see  changes  in  its  constitution ;  and 
it  is  doubtful  whether  we  want  to  see  it  abolished — whether 
a  second  house  properly  constituted  is  not  a  factor  of  per- 
manent advantage  in  a  national  government  like  ours.  If 
our  Congress  should  ever  be  reduced  to  a  single  chamber, 
the  result  would  be  a  more  deliberate  mode  of  procedure  and 
a  higher  standard  of  membership  than  we  now  see  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  such  provision  for  elections 
and  terms  of  service  as  would  secure  the  presence  in  the 
House  at  all  times  of  a  great  body  of  experienced  men,  not 
likely  to  be  moved  by  passing  flutters. 

But  at  the  end  it  is  necessary  to  say,  and  we  can  never 
say  it  too  often,  that  the  best  political  system  in  the  world  is 
good  for  nothing  unless  behind  the  system  is  individual 
virtue.  The  test  of  the  government  at  last  is  the  test  of 


78  Representative  Government. 

the  citizen.  It  is  in  politics  as  it  is  in  business,  and  as  it  is 
all  through  life.  In  Boston  we  have  just  had,  as  is  known 
to  the  business  men  among  you,  a  great  financial  crash  ;  the 
directors  of  the  Maverick  Bank  betrayed  their  trust,  and  a 
million  dollars  are  gone.  It  was  a  national  bank,  and  so 
inquiry  has  gone  on  and  on  from  the  national  bank  examiner 
clear  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  at  Washington.  And 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has  said  what  is  worth  re- 
peating. He  finds  no  examiner  to  blame.  Each  had  done 
his  duty  in  his  sphere,  but  all  had  been  kept  from  the  truth 
by  the  easy  devices  of  designing  men.  ~No  system,  says  the 
Secretary,  is  clever  enough  or  strong  enough  to  insure  pro- 
tection against  the  devices  of  designing  men ;  there  is  no 
security  in  business,  there  is  no  safety  for  the  community, 
except  in  honest  men. 

So  it  is  in  the  State.  We  are  safe  if  we  are  virtuous  and 
if  our  virtue  is  alert,  if  there  are  enough  active  good  men 
in  the  community  to  overcome  the  influence  of  selfish  men. 
"  An  indolent  majority,"  says  Mill,  "  like  an  indolent  in- 
dividual, belongs  to  the  person  who  takes  most  pains  with 
it."  Are  good  citizens  willing  to  take  pains  ?  That  is  where 
it  all  comes  to  in  the  end.  If  not,  then  they  must  be  pre- 
pared for  the  inevitable  consequences.  A  people  that  will 
not  do  its  duty  will  surely  lose  its  privileges,  and  will 
deserve  to  lose  them. 

I  rejoice  to  see  in  so  many  quarters  signs  of  a  higher 
devotion  to  political  duties  and  to  political  studies.  I  re- 
joice to  see  higher  definitions  of  citizenship.  I  rejoice  to 
see  men  coming,  as  you  come  to-night,  into  the  church  to 
reflect  upon  their  duties  as  citizens  of  a  free  commonwealth 
in  the  place  where  they  are  wont  to  reflect  upon  their  stand- 
ing in  the  Kingdom  of  God ;  for  "  where  the  spirit  of  Grod 
is,  there  " — and  there  alone  permanently — "  is  liberty." 


Representative  Government.  79 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  FREDERIC  W.  HINRICHS: 

Doubtless  most  intelligent  men  will  agree  with  the  lecturer  in 
nearly  all  he  has  said.  But  when  he  speaks  of  restricting  the  suffrage 
I  must  take  issue  with  him.  That  is  hardly  a  practical  question, 
however,  for  it  is  scarcely  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  his 
suggestions  shall  be  adopted.  History  shows  that  the  extension  of  the 
suffrage  is  inevitable,  and  once  granted,  it  will  be  permanently  held. 
Universal  suffrage  will  surely  come ;  we  haven't  it  yet,  even  in  this 
country,  for  women  are  deprived  of  the  right.  To  show  the  defect  of 
our  present  plan  of  representation,  take  an  example.  In  a  county  in 
which  100,000  voters  are  to  elect  ten  representatives,  if  the  districts  are 
equally  divided,  and  the  vote  in  each  should  be  6,000  for  one  party 
and  4,000  for  the  other,  it  would  be  quite  possible  for  one  party  to 
elect  all  the  representatives  without  gerrymandering.  The  large 
minority  would  be  entirely  unrepresented.  Now,  by  the  Hare  system, 
every  voter  would  put  upon  his  ballot  the  names  of  several  men 
representing  his  views.  The  total  votes  of  the  parties  would  deter- 
mine the  number  from  each  that  would  be  elected :  six  for  one  and 
four  for  the  other,  those  receiving  the  greatest  number  of  votes  in 
either  party  having  the  preference.  The  representative  need  not  be  a 
resident  of  the  district  from  which  he  is  chosen.  There  is  no  reason 
why  a  Brooklyn  voter  should  not  be  represented  in  our  State  Legisla- 
ture by  a  resident  of  Elmira  if  he  is  the  best  representative  of  his 
views.  Our  present  system  is  monstrous.  Large  minorities  are  ab- 
solutely unrepresented ;  and  great  questions  may  actually  be  settled 
by  a  minority  of  the  people.  There  are  some  evolutionists  who  be- 
lieve because  all  things  are  developed  by  natural  processes  of  growth, 
whatever  is  is  right,  and  it  is  of  no  use  to  devise  systems  of  improve- 
ment. Others  say  it  is  a  matter  of  choice.  We  must  believe  in  the 
efficacy  of  education  and  human  volition,  or  we  should  not  institute 
and  attend  such  a  course  of  lectures. 

MR.  HENRY  ROWLEY  : 

It  is  well  that  these  important  topics  should  be  discussed  apart  from 
the  heat  of  party  politics,  calmly  and  scientifically.  While  agreeing 
in  the  main  with  the  lecturer,  I  will  submit  one  or  two  points  of 
criticism.  1.  Mr.  Mead  says  the  English  House  of  Lords  originated 


80  Representative  Government. 

in  the  Saxon  Witenagemote.  Guizot,  in  his  Representative  Govern- 
ment in  Europe,  shows  that  the  House  of  Lords  belongs  to  the  barons, 
who  were  of  Norman  origin,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  Saxon  insti- 
tutions or  influence.  The  Witenagemote  was  an  assembly  on  a  small 
scale,  and  at  first  was  attended  by  everybody.  Later  it  was  confined 
to  the  rich,  because  the  poor  man,  the  small  holder,  could  not  spare 
the  time  and  money  to  attend.  But  the  House  of  Lords  is  a  thing  of 
the  barons,  grown  up  upon  military  power — a  ridiculous  thing,  an 
utterly  useless  and  obstructive  feature  in  the  British  system  which 
they  can  not  always  tolerate.  2.  Mr.  Mead  says  the  principle  of 
popular  representation  came  into  vogue  during  the  Commonwealth. 
It  may  have  existed  since  then  in  name,  but  never  in  fact  until  1885. 
The  minority  always  ruled,  because  of  gerrymandering  and  unfair 
distribution  of  seats.  The  last  questions  raised  are  of  great  interest. 
The  Hare  system  was  backed  by  Mill  in  his  book,  but  not  in  Parlia- 
ment. Mill  is  a  theorist;  his  methods  are  geometrical  rather  than 
practical.  Lubbock  also  is  a  theorist.  The  system  was  once  tried  in 
London,  but  has  been  superseded  by  that  of  district  representation. 
If  ideas  were  represented  instead  of  men,  we  should  have  legislatures 
filled  with  impractical  theorists.  If  an  idea  is  worth  representa- 
tion, it  will,  in  nine  constituencies  out  of  ten,  ultimately  find  a 
majority  in  its  favor.  Nearly  all  legislation  is  simply  the  transaction 
of  business,  and  our  legislators  should  be  practical  men.  Though 
chosen  by  a  majority  vote,  each  representative,  under  our  theory,  acts 
for  his  entire  constituency.  The  minority,  therefore,  is  not  unrepre- 
sented. The  best  way  to  secure  responsibility  in  the  voter  is  to  edu- 
cate him — not  to  disfranchise  him  because  he  is  ignorant.  Begin 
with  the  children — educate  them,  and  democracy  will  take  care  of 
itself.  The  English  system,  which  compels  a  ministry  to  retire  when 
defeated,  is  more  truly  democratic  than  our  own.  We  can  only  have 
a  true  democracy  when  all  the  people  have  a  full  right  to  cast  their 
ballots  in  the  most  practicable  way,  without  let  or  hindrance,  and 
those  in  authority  simply  carry  out  the  will  of  the  people  so  expressed. 

DR.  LEWIS  G.  JANES: 

Mr.  Mead  has  shown  that  in  representative  government  as  it  origi- 
nated in  England  the  representation  was  of  classes  rather  than  of  men. 
Before  our  own  Government  was  constituted  I  am  not  aware  that 
manhood  representation  was  ever  successfully  attempted  on  a  large 
scale.  As  an  evolutionist,  I  recognize  that  all  forms  of  government 
are  proper  in  their  place — any  form  exists,  or  should  exist,  only  as  the 
people  are  fit  for  it.  In  a  perfect  community  manhood  suffrage  (and  I 
include  woman  in  the  term)  is  the  ideal  thing.  But  manhood  suffrage 


Representative  Government.  81 

in  Central  Africa  would  be  an  absurdity.  Have  we  reached  the  social 
state  wherein  manhood  suffrage  is  safe  and  practicable "?  It  is  a  question 
in  some  mmds  whether  we  have,  but  I  have  not  concluded  that  our 
method  is  a  failure.  Our  foreign  population  is  admitted  to  suffrage 
easily,  but  less  easily  assimilated  by  our  body  politic.  In  two  or  three 
generations,  however,  the  descendants  of  immigrants  make  as  good 
voters  as  any.  The  suffrage  is  a  great  educating  power.  I  agree  with 
Mr.  Hinrichs  that  we  can  take  no  backward  step— toward  the  limita- 
tion of  suffrage  by  a  property  qualification,  for  instance— save  by  an 
absolute  revolution. 

MR.  MEAD,  in  closing,  said :  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  de- 
fending the  House  of  Lords.  It  is  "  useless,  dangerous,  and  ought  to 
be  abolished."  But  when  one  sees  the  rapidity  with  which  the  Ameri- 
can Senate  is  becoming  the  representative  of  the  great  money  interests, 
one  may  rightly  compare  it  with  the  House  of  Lords  to  see  how,  in 
that  body,  even  as  Cobbett  saw,  are  qualities  and  credentials  more 
dignified  than  those  which  so  often  get  approval  among  us.  As  to  the 
origin  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  Witenagemote :  it  is  truo  a  great 
part  was  played  by  the  Normans,  but  the  old  Saxon  institutions  ivere 
gradually  merged  with  the  Norman.  The  historical  view  is  excel- 
lently presented  by  Mr.  Freeman  in  his  little  book  on  the  English 
Constitution.  The  Witenagemote  did  not  deal  simply  with  the  affairs 
of  the  locality,  but  also  with  those  of  the  realm.  It  is  true,  too,  that 
it  is  only  in  our  time  that  the  English  have  had  a  fair  representation. 
The  principle  was  forecast  by  the  men  of  the  Commonwealth.  In 
comparing  our  system  with  that  of  England  we  must  not  forget  that 
the  Crown  does  exercise  real  power  in  times  of  change.  The  Crown  is 
the  hinge  on  which  ministries  turn,  and  we  have  no  such  feature  in 
our  system.  Just  there  the  French  constitution,  I  believe,  will  wreck. 
It  can  exist  as  long  as  they  have  Presidents  like  Grevy  and  Carnot — 
able  to  work  with  ministries  of  varying  complexions.  Men  like  Gam- 
betta  could  not  do  it ;  such  men  have  too  strong  feelings  to  permit 
them  to  work  with  those  sharply  opposed  to  themselves.  I  believe 
that  there  was  great  danger  of  revolution  in  France  under  Macmahon. 
My  idea  of  a  restricted  suffrage  is  certainly  not  to  make  it  small,  but 
to  guard  against  ignorance  and  too  easy  naturalization.  The  Hare 
system,  I  wish  to  say,  is  not  backed  by  political  theorists  exclusively. 
Two  or  three  hundred  members  of  Parliament  have  declared  in  favor 
of  it,  and  the  general  principle  of  proportional  representation  had  the 
unanimous  approval  of  a  committee  of  the  United  States  Senate  ap- 
pointed at  one  time  to  consider  the  matter. 


SUFFRAGE 
AND  THE  BALLOT 


BY 

DANIEL  S.  REMSEN 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Bryce's  The  American  Commonwealth ;  Fiske's  Civil  Government 
in  the  United  States ;  McMillan's  Elective  Franchise  in  the  United 
States ;  Sir  John  Lubbock's  Representation ;  Sterne's  Representative 
Government  and  Proportional  Representation;  Buckalew's  Propor- 
tional Representation;  Bowker's  Electoral  Reform;  Ivins's  Machine 
Politics;  Lawton's  American  Caucus  System;  Whittridge's  The  Cau- 
cus System ;  Roosevelt's  Essays  on  Practical  Politics ;  Hare's  Election 
of  Representatives,  Parliamentary  and  Municipal ;  Mill's  Considera- 
tions on  Representative  Government. 


SUFFRAGE  AND  THE  BALLOT. 

BY  DANIEL  S.  REMSEN. 

As  the  suffrage  and  the  ballot  are  at  the  foundation  of 
our  national  life,  they  demand  both  a  careful  and  a  religious 
consideration. 

Suffrage  is  the  act  of  voting.  The  right  to  perform  that 
act  is  known  as  the  right  of  suffrage  or  the  elective  fran- 
chise. This  right  is  secured  to  certain  persons  by  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  as  well  as  by  those  of  the  sev- 
eral States.  I  will  not  touch  upon  the  propriety  of  extend- 
ing the  right  of  suffrage  to  women,  or  of  restricting  it 
further  in  case  of  resident  aliens,  as  other  essays  to  be 
read  before  you  will  deal  with  those  points. 

REPRESENTATION". 

Under  every  form  of  government  where  people  have  the 
right  to  vote,  some  form  of  representation  is  necessary. 
Few  public  duties  can  be  performed  by  the  whole  body  of 
the  people.  Most  public  duties  devolve  on  individuals 
acting  for  the  whole.  Persons  performing  those  duties  on 
behalf  of  the  public  are  called  officers  or  officials,  and  in 
popular  governments  they  are  said  to  "  represent "  the 
people,  as  they  act  for  them.  With  reference  to  representa- 
tion, officials  may  be  divided  into  two  classes.  One  class 
is  composed  of  the  single  officers,  such  as  governor,  mayor, 
sheriff,  and  the  like,  each  acting  alone  for  all  the  people 
within  a  particular  State  or  district. 

The  other  class  is  composed  of  the  plural  officers,  such  as 
senators,  members  of  assembly,  aldermen,  and  the  like,  who 
act  together  in  performing  the  duties  of  their  offices,  which 
are  generally  legislative  in  their  nature. 

With  these  two  classes  of  officials  in  mind  you  will  read- 
ily see  that  where  a  single  official — for  example,  a  governor — 
is  elected  by  a  slight  majority,  he  in  one  sense  represents 
only  those  who  voted  for  him,  while  in  another  sense  he 
represents  all.  In  the  last  sense  he  represents  all,  not 
because  he  is  chosen  by  all,  but  because  he  must  act  for  all. 


86  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

Where,  however,  the  duties  to  be  performed  fall  into  the 
hands  of  a  body  of  officers,  and  not  to  a  single  individual, 
there  is  opportunity  for  what  is  more  properly  termed  rep- 
resentation. 

To  represent,  in  its  proper  sense,  is  to  stand  for  or  act  for 
another  in  any  transaction.  If,  for  instance,  in  the  election 
of  assemblymen,  a  certain  number  of  voters  residing  any- 
where throughout  the  State,  without  reference  to  district, 
were  allowed  to  agree  upon  a  particular  person  to  act  for  them 
in  the  Assembly,  such  voters  would  be  represented  in  the  full- 
est and  best  sense  of  the  word,  as  their  representative  would  be 
a  man  of  their  choice.  A  legislature  elected  in  that  manner 
would  be  a  miniature  of  the  people.  This  method  of  repre- 
sentation is  what  is  known  as  personal  representation,  and  is 
probably  the  most  perfect  that  can  be  devised.  Some  twenty- 
five  years  ago  an  endeavor  was  made  by  David  Dudley  Field, 
Simon  Sterne,  and  others,  to  have  that  method  of  representa- 
tion adopted  in  this  State.  That  method,  however,  is  not 
generally  understood,  and  consequently  it  is  not  appreciated. 
The  present  method  of  representation  is  very  different.  It 
is  what  is  known  as  the  single-district  system.  The  State 
is  divided  into  districts,  and  the  voters  in  each  district  are 
allowed  to  send  one  representative  to  the  Legislature.  As  it 
is  impossible  to  bring  all  the  inhabitants  of  any  district  to 
agree  on  the  election  of  one  representative,  it  follows  that  all 
who  do  not  vote  for  the  successful  candidate  have  no  chosen 
representative  to  speak  for  them.  This  fact  has  given  rise 
to  a  demand  for  some  form  of  minority  representation  in 
legislative  bodies.  The  imperfect  representation  which  is 
unavoidable  in  the  election  of  a  single  officer,  such  as  a 
governor  or  mayor,  has  been  unnecessarily  extended  to  the 
election  of  legislative  bodies  by  the  use  of  the  single-district 
system.  Added  to  this  we  have  what  is  familiarly  known  as 
the  gerrymandering  of  districts,  whereby  bad  representation 
becomes  misrepresentation. 

While  there  are  other  forms  of  representation,  we  will 
not  stop  to  consider  them.  But  if  we  look  generally  over 
the  field  of  elections,  we  will  notice  that  most  officers  chosen 
are  such  as  hold  the  only  position  of  the  kind  within  the 
particular  State,  municipality,  or  district.  That  is,  aside 
from  presidential  electors,  and  in  this  city  aldermen,  prac- 
tically all  voting  is  for  single  officers,  such  as  a  governor, 
mayor,  a  State  senator,  assemblyman,  sheriff,  and  the  like. 
As  that  is  the  general  rule  in  this  and  other  States,  my 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  87 

remarks  will  be  confined  to  single  elections  or  elections 
of  single  officers. 

THE  SPOILS  SYSTEM. 

Before  proceeding  further  I  wish  you  to  understand  how 
the  faulty  representation  incident  to  single  elections  fosters 
and  encourages  what  is  known  as  the  spoils  system.  The 
election  of  a  single  officer  is  secured  by  the  united  action  of 
a  fraction  of  the  voters — not  all  the  voters.  Hence  the  per- 
son elected  ordinarily  feels  indebted  to  that  fraction  of  the 
community,  and  if  he  does  not  do  all  in  his  power  as  a  pub- 
lic officer  to  reward  his  supporters,  he  is  looked  upon  as  un- 
grateful. Thus  has  grown  up  a  system  of  vassalage,  or  a 
feudal  tenure  of  office.  In  this  way,  after  parties  have  come 
into  power,  their  ability  to  dispose  of  patronage  acts  as  a 
cement  to  keep  the  party  together. 

New  parties  are  always  formed  about  some  political  prin- 
ciple or  policy  of  government.  At  first  they  draw  their 
support  and  increase,  if  any,  from  other  political  parties  by 
detaching  from  them  voters  who  believe  in  the  new  prin- 
ciple and  are  not  attached  to  the  old  party  by  office  or  the 
hope  of  it.  I  do  riot  mean  to  say  that  none  come  from  self- 
ish motives.  Undoubtedly  many  do  when  there  is  hope  of 
success,  but  the  spoils  system  plays  no  part  in  party  manage- 
ment until  there  is  some  measure  of  success.  As  soon  as  a 
party  succeeds  in  electing  its  candidate  to  office,  there  are 
plenty  within  its  ranks  to  look  about  for  loaves  and  fishes. 
And  the  more  power  the  officer  has  to  distribute  good  things 
by  creating  or  filling  vacancies  in  minor  offices,  the  more  he 
is  besieged  and  the  more  likely  he  is  to  serve  his  party  rather 
than  the  people  in  the  administration  of  his  office.  The 
result  of  the  spoils  system  is  that  many  elections,  involving 
no  policy  of  government  except  the  honesty  and  ability  of 
the  candidates,  degenerate  into  desperate  struggles  between 
members  of  two  parties  for  a  means  of  livelihood.  In  any 
consideration  of  the  spoils  system  it  is  important  to  examine 
its  cloak — 

THE  NATIONAL  ISSUE  IN  LOCAL  AFFAIRS. 

How  absurd  it  is  to  drag  national  politics  into  local  elec- 
tions !  to  elect  a  mayor  because  he  favors  tariff  reform  or  to 
defeat  a  candidate   for  constable   because  he   thinks   the 
7 


88  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

National  Government  should  enter  upon  the  free  coinage  of 
silver !  Such  a  practice  can  not  be  excused  except  from  a 
party  standpoint.  For  it  I  can  see  but  two  motives :  First, 
the  securing  of  office  and  patronage  as  spoils,  and,  Second, 
the  holding  of  voters  together  so  that  they  can  be  relied 
upon  when  national  issues  do  arise. 

The  first  motive  is  entirely  selfish,  and  the  last  is  not 
above  criticism,  besides  being  uncomplimentary  to  the  intel- 
ligence of  the  voter.  A  marked  instance  of  this  confusion  of 
issues  was  exhibited  in  the  last  campaign  when  certain  citi- 
zens and  newspapers  supported  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  governor  and  other  candidates  on  national  issues,  lest  the 
election  of  a  Eepublican  governor  should  lead  the  public  to 
believe  that  the  State  of  New  York  favored  the  policy  of 
the  present  administration  in  tariff  legislation.  In  Ohio 
and  Massachusetts  it  is  reported  that  campaigns  were  fought 
and  won  on  national  issues.  Even  in  municipal  .elections 
irrelevant  issues  were  raised  and  determined  the  election.  In 
this  way  many  a  person  who  would  be  the  choice  of  the  peo- 
ple to  perform  the  duties  of  an  office  has  been  defeated, 
much  to  the  detriment  of  the  public  service.  The  existence 
of  these  facts  indicates  a  weakness  in  our  election  machinery 
which  should  not  be  overlooked,  and  to  which  I  will  recur 
at  the  end  of  this  paper. 

THE  BALLOT. 

In  the  consideration  of  suffrage  and  the  ballot  our  atten- 
tion is  drawn  most  naturally  to  the  act  of  voting  by  means 
of  the  ballot.  And  we  will  endeavor  to  consider  it  from 
the  practical  rather  than  from  the  historical  point  of  view. 

Originally,  as  you  all  know,  the  ballot  was  a  ball,  a  shell, 
or  other  symbol  by  which  the  voter  indicated  whether  he 
was  in  favor  of  or  against  a  particular  proposition.  That 
old  style  of  voting  is  still  popular  and  serviceable  in  clubs 
and  societies  for  speedy  action  on  simple  questions.  After 
the  invention  of  printing  came  the  printed  paper  ballot  in 
various  forms,  until  what  is  probably  the  most  perfect  form 
of  ballot  yet  devised  has  made  its  appearance — the  blanket 
ballot  of  the  Australian  system.  There  the  names  of  all  the 
candidates  for  a  given  office  are  arranged  alphabetically  on 
a  single  ballot  and  the  voter  is  allowed  to  mark  the  name  of 
the  person  for  whom  he  votes.  By  the  use  of  the  Australian 
system  of  voting  the  danger  of 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  89 

BRIBERY  AND  CORRUPTION 

in  elections  has  been  overcome  to  a  considerable  extent. 
The  secrecy  enforced  in  voting  is  the  point  of  safety.  By 
that  simple  device  the  would-be  purchaser  of  a  vote  is  de- 
prived of  a  means  of  absolute  certainty  that  the  vender  of 
a  vote  voted  according  to  contract.  But,  notwithstanding 
the  secrecy  incident  to  voting,  practical  politicians  assert 
that  many  votes  are  still  bought.  Probably  the  instruments 
now  most  conducive  to  the  purchase  and  sale  of  votes  in 
this  State  are  the  separate  party  ballots  and  the  paster  bal- 
lot. But  as  these  are  already  in  much  disfavor,  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  they  will  soon  disappear.  Another  recent  im- 
provement in  laws  relating  to  elections  is  the 

CORRUPT  PRACTICES  ACT. 

While  our  State  legislation  on  this  subject  is  not  wholly 
satisfactory,  it  is  a  great  improvement  on  former  statutes. 
Formerly,  only  the  ordinary  gift  or  promise  of  money  or 
thing  of  value  as  a  consideration  for  voting  or  withholding 
a  vote  constituted  bribery.  Now,  however,  bribery  may 
consist  in  promising  office  or  employment,  or  to  make 
endeavor  to  procure  office  or  employment,  for  any  person  as 
a  means  of  influencing  votes.  Indeed,  I  am  not  sure  that 
the  words  of  this  statute  do  not  make  it  unlawful  to  employ 
workers  at  the  polls  for  hire. 

Under  another  wholesome  provision  of  this  act  the  public 
is  able  to  form  some  idea  of  the  part  played  by  money  in 
political  campaigns.  Each  candidate  is  required  to  file  an 
itemized  statement  showing  in  detail  all  the  moneys  con- 
tributed or  expended  by  him,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  aid 
of  his  election.  Under  this  law  the  'favorite  method  is  for 
candidates  to  contribute  to  a  campaign  committee  and  to 
file  a  statement  to  that  effect.  What  becomes  of  the  money 
subsequently  is,  of  course,  unknown.  Committees  are  not 
obliged  to  make  any  showing  as  they  should,  and  probably 
soon  will  be.  The  saddest  spectacle  in  the  last  campaign 
was  the  enforced  contribution  by  able  and  honorable  men 
who  were  candidates  for  several  of  the  most  important  judi- 
cial positions  within  the  gift  of  the  people.  Their  enforced 
contributions  ranged  as  high  as  ten  thousand  dollars.  One 
political  organization  in  this  way  gathered  in  from  success- 
ful candidates  for  judicial  positiona  something  like  thirty 


90  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

thousand  dollars,  one  of  the  candidates  for  civil  justice 
having  contributed  $500  more  than  one  year's  salary,  which 
is  $6,000.  These  enforced  contributions  on  the  part  of  the 
candidates  must  be  regarded  either  as  blackmail  on  the  can- 
didate or  as  a  price  paid  for  the  office.  That  such  a  con- 
dition of  affairs  should  exist  under  any  form  of  government 
is  simply  scandalous. 

Michigan  has  passed  a  law  on  the  lines  of  the  New  York 
statute,  but  has  extended  the  provisions  in  regard  to  sworn 
statements  so  as  to  include  the  account  of  moneys  expended 
by  campaign  committees..  It  also  prohibits  treating  and 
certain  other  forms  of  expenditure  of  campaign  funds.  In 
Minnesota  a  bill  has  been  proposed  containing  a  provision 
limiting  the  amount  that  can  be  expended  by  candidates  for 
the  several  offices.  This  is  on  the  plan  of  the  English  stat- 
ute, which  has  worked  very  satisfactorily.  When  to  these 
provisions  is  added  some  form  of  judicial  inquiry  as  to  the 
use  of  the  funds,  where  deemed  advisable,  which  I  believe 
is  proposed  in  Massachusetts,  legislation  on  this  point  will 
be  quite  satisfactory.  Even  then  there  is  one  matter  which 
should  not  be  overlooked.  That  is  the  practice  of 

TRADING  VOTES. 

"  If  you  will  vote  my  ticket  for  mayor  I  will  vote  your 
ticket  for  governor."  How  often  is  such  a  proposition  made 
and  accepted  between  voters  of  good  standing  in  the  com- 
munity, but  of  opposite  politics !  Such  a  transaction  does 
not  come  within  the  statute  relating  to  bribery ;  but  I  do 
not  believe  it  can  be  defended  from  an  ethical  point  of  view. 
If,  as  is  generally  conceded,  the  State  can  rightfully  claim 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  citizens  to  vote,  it  necessarily  follows 
that  each  voter  is  under  obligations  to  pass  upon  each  mat- 
ter according  to  his  best  judgment.  What  would  be  thought 
of  a  judge  if  he  should  announce  that  he  would  decide  a 
certain  case  upon  the  merits  of  some  other  ?  If  judges  can 
not  properly  trade  decisions,  voters  should  not  trade  votes. 

Let  us  now  pass  from  the  means  of  voting  and  the  pro- 
tection of  the  sacred  character  of  the  ballot  to  the  joint 
action  of  voters. 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  '  91 

THE  UNITED  ACTION  OF  VOTERS 

is  absolutely  necessary.  Whatever  may  be  the  method  of 
voting,  it  is  almost  useless  for  voters  to  participate  in  the 
modern  election  without  taking  some  preconcerted  action. 
This  was  well  illustrated  some  years  ago  by  the  late  Howard 
Crosby.  He  had  been  reported  as  having  voted  for  John 
Morrissey  for  State  Senator,  and  a  reporter  was  sent  to  as- 
certain as  to  the  truth  of  the  story.  Dr.  Crosby  was 
met  as  he  was  leaving  his  home,  and  when  asked  about  the 
matter  he  hurriedly  replied  :  "  I  did  not  vote  for  Mr.  Schell 
(Mr.  Morrissey's  opponent)  because  he  represented  Tam- 
many Hall,  and  I  did  not  vote  for  John  Morrissey  because 
he  is  a  gambler."  "But  you  did  vote ?"  queried  the  re- 
porter. "  True,"  answered  the  doctor,  "  I  voted  for  Prof. 
Doremus,  of  course  not  with  any  expectation  of  electing 
him,  but  simply  to  express  my  individual  preference.  I 
knew  it  was  all  moonshine ;  I  simply  threw  away  my  vote 
for  the  reasons  mentioned." 

MEANS   OF  UNITING   VOTEES. 

This  little  incident  will  serve  to  impress  on  the  mind  the 
absence  of  any  means  provided  by  law  tending  to  bring 
about  united  action  by  voters.  Citizens  are  left  to  their 
own  expedients.  They  are  at  liberty  to  combine  in  any  way 
they  shall  see  fit.  The  result  is  that  two  forms  of  combina- 
tion have  appeared :  first,  the  combination  among  individ- 
uals, called  parties,  and,  second,  the  occasional  combination 
between  parties,  called  fusions. 

I  will  first  speak  of 

PARTY  COMBINATIONS, 

or  fusion  tickets  as  a  means  of  uniting  voters.  Where 
there  are  but  two  parties,  if  the  election  does  not  result 
in  a  tie  the  candidate  of  one  party  necessarily  secures  more 
than  half  the  votes.  In  that  case  he  is  said  to  be  elected 
by  a  majority.  Where  there  are  more  than  two  parties  in 
the  field  it  very  frequently  happens  that  they  are  nearly 
evenly  divided.  According  to  the  method  ordinarily  used 
in  public  elections,  the  candidate  receiving  the  greatest 
number  of  votes  would  be  elected,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  the  combined  strength  of  the  other  two  candi- 


92  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

dates  might  be  almost  double  his  vote.  To  illustrate :  If 
in  the  election  of  a  president  of  this  association  one  candi- 
date should  receive  thirty-four  votes,  and  two  other  candi- 
dates each  thirty-three  votes,  the  one  receiving  thirty-four 
votes  would,  under  the  rules  applied  to  public  elections,  be 
elected  to  the  office. 

In  Europe  elections  by  a  minority  are  not  so  common 
as  in  this  country.  The  means  ordinarily  employed  to  se- 
cure a  majority  is  to  have  a  second  election  between  the 
two  highest  candidates,  which  necessarily  secures  the  de- 
sired result.  That  plan,  however,  in  this  country  is  not 
generally  adopted,  and  elections  are  frequently  decided  by  a 
minority  vote  where  there  are  more  than  two  candidates  in 
the  field. 

As  we  all  know,  scattering  votes  are  of  no  importance 
in  determining  an  election.  Likewise  the  voters  of  a  third 
party  have  no  affirmative  effect  on  the  result.  Indeed,  if 
the  state  has  an  interest  in  having  all  vote  who  are  entitled 
to  do  so,  it  has  an  equal  interest  in  having  every  vote  counted 
for  one  of  the  two  principal  candidates,  for  then,  and  not 
otherwise,  a  vote  aids  in  determining  an  election. 

These  considerations  have  given  rise  to  the  occasional 
practice  of  the  principal  minority  parties  agreeing  before  an 
election  on  what  is  termed  a  fusion  ticket.  They  agree  for 
the  time  being  to  join  their  forces  with  the  hope  of  together 
securing  a  majority  vote.  In  order  to  do  this,  however,  it 
is  necessary  for  one  or  the  other  party,  or  perhaps  both,  to 
abandon  temporarily,  or  to  some  extent,  its  party  organ- 
ization. To  this  there  are  many  objections  from  a  party 
standpoint.  The  result  is  that  many  voters  are  lukewarm 
in  support  of  a  fusion  ticket  or  do  not  vote  at  all.  Election 
machinery  should  tend  to  the  unification  of  all  voters.  The 
present  election  machinery,  however,  does  not  make  any 
provision  for  aiding  the  voters  of  different  parties  to  unite 
at  an  election  without  at  least  some  of  the  voters  abandon- 
ing their  party  to  support  a  fusion  ticket.  This,  it  seems 
to  me,  is  one  of  the  weakest  points  in  our  present  election 
laws  and  one  which  can  be  remedied  in  the  manner  hereafter 
to  be  described. 

We  now  come  to 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  93 

THE  PARTY  AS  A  MEANS  OF  UNITING  VOTERS. 

The  party  as  a  political  force  sprang  up  very  early  in  the 
history  of  this  country.  It  still  exists,  and  probably  always 
will.  A  similar  condition  of  affairs  appears  to  be  present 
wherever  it  is  necessary  to  ascertain  the  popular  will.  A 
political  party  is  an  association  of  voters  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  the  adoption  of  some  favorite  policy  in  the  admin- 
istration of  government.  Its  function  is  to  bring  about 
united  action  among  voters  in  favor  of  its  principles. 
"While  a  party  is  generally  put  to  a  different  use,  it  in  some 
particulars  reminds  one  of  the  sand-bag  sometimes  used  by 
highwaymen.  Its  strength  and  utility  lie  in  small  particles 
closely  confined  and  arranged  into  a  convenient  form  of 
club.  The  knowledge  of  each  voter  that  if  he  does  not  act 
with  a  party  he  is  practically  disfranchised  is  perhaps  one 
of  the  greatest  agencies  in  holding  a  party  together.  Few 
care  to  imitate  Dr.  Crosby,  and  vote  simply  for  "  moon- 
shine." 

On  the  formation  of  a  party  and  ever  afterward  some 
agency  must  be  provided  for 

DETERMINING  THE  LINE  OF  PARTY  ACTION. 

The  means  originally  employed  in  this  country  for  that 
purpose  was  the  caucus,  which  some  say  derived  its  name 
from  meetings  of  ship  calkers  held  in  Boston  shortly  prior 
to  the  Revolution.  But,  without  going  into  the  origin  of 
the  name,  we  find  the  methods  of  the  caucus  employed  in 
the  Plymouth  Colony  at  the  election  of  a  governor  in  1635. 
This,  Mr.  Hildreth  says,  in  his  history  of  the  United  States, 
is  the  first  instance  of  the  caucus  system  on  record.  Mr. 
Lawton,  however,  in  his  work  on  the  American  Caucus 
System,  claims  that  the  historian  is  in  error.  He  refers  to 
the  case  of  Abimelech,  one  of  the  sons  of  Gideon,  who 
desired  the  judgeship  vacated  by  the  death  of  his  father, 
and  says  that  when  Abimelech  took  advantage  of  the  kin- 
ship of  his  mother,  who  was  a  Shechemite,  and  "com- 
muned" with  his  mother's  relatives,  this  communion  was 
simply  a  caucus. 

However  interesting  such  speculation  may  be,  it  is  prob- 
ably true  that  the  caucus  system,  as  applied  to  parties,  is 
essentially  an  American  institution,  and  had  its  rise,  or 
came  into  general  use,  shortly  after  the  adoption  of  the 


94  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

present  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  In  its  primitive 
form  it  may  be  said  to  have  resembled  the  famous  town 
meetings  of  New  England,  in  which  a  century  or  so  ago 
were  gathered  some  of  the  most  noted  persons  in  American 
history  to  discuss  public  questions  with  the  greatest  de- 
liberation. Hon.  Thomas  M.  Cooley,  so  well  and  favorably 
known  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  has  said  of  the 
caucus :  "  Theoretically,  it  may  be  denned  as  a  deliberative 
meeting  of  citizens  for  consultation,  with  a  view  to  deter- 
mine the  course  of  public  action,"  but  practically  he  takes 
a  very  different  view  of  it.  As  the  town  meeting  has 
become  obsolete  in  populous  communities,  so  the  caucus  in 
its  original  use  has  very  largely  passed  away.  In  our  large 
cities  a  caucus  of  all  the  voters  within  a  party  would  be 
impracticable ;  hence  the  primary  election  and  nominating 
convention  have  been  substituted,  and  the  caucus  is  left  to 
the  party  leaders.  I  need  not  take  your  time  to  describe 
how  the  voters  in  each  party  organize  in  each  ward  and 
elect  delegates  to  a  county  or  State  convention  for  the 
nomination  of  officers.  That  is  well  known  to  all.  The 
machinery  of  these  organizations,  however,  is  generally 
more  or  less  complicated,  and  political  leaders  become  very 
expert  in  its  manipulation. 
Let  us  now  look  at 

PARTIES  AS  THEY  ABE  MANAGED. 

Perhaps  the  most  distinguished  and  at  the  same  time 
the  most  disinterested  witness  that  could  be  called  on  this 
point  is  Prof.  Bryce.  In  his  American  Commonwealth  he 
says  of  the  parties  and  their  management  in  this  country : 
"Parties  go  on  contending  because  their  members  have 
formed  a  habit  of  joint  action,  and  have  contracted  hatred 
and  prejudices,  and  also  because  the  leaders  find  it  to  their 
advantage  in  using  these  habits,  and  playing  upon  these 
prejudices.  The  American  parties  continue  to  exist  because 
they  have  existed.  The  mill  has  been  constructed  and  its 
machinery  goes  on  turning,  even  where  there  is  no  grist  to 
grind.  But  this  is  not  wholly  the  fault  of  the  men,  for  the 
system  of  government  requires  parties  just  as  that  of  Eng- 
land does.  These  systems  are  made  to  be  worked,  and 
always  have  been  worked,  by  a  majority.  The  majority 
must  be  cohesive,  gathered  into  a  united  and  organized 
body.  Such  a  body  is  a  party." 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  95 

One  of  the  most  severe  arraignments  of  party  manage- 
ment which  has  come  to  my  notice  was  recently  put  forth 
by  a  body  of  very  respectable  citizens  in  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia. They  say :  "  In  a  commonwealth  of  over  five 
millions  of  people,  the  industrious  citizen,  occupied  by  busi- 
ness, by  domestic  or  social  responsibilities,  has  insensibly 
permitted  the  formation  of  a  political  clique,  which  has 
been  guided  largely  by  two  considerations — self-interest,  and 
the  perpetuation  of  personal  power.  ..."  He  "has  been 
sometimes  cajoled,  sometimes  deceived,  sometimes  con- 
ciliated, but  the  process  of  perfecting  the  machinery  of  the 
political  organization  for  the  convenience  of  its  clever 
artificers  has  gone  steadily  forward.  .  .  .  There  is  a  pre- 
mium placed  upon  political  subservience,  but  not  upon 
political  independence,  however  sincere  its  spirit,  however 
essential  to  our  progressive  civilization."  They  also  say 
that  the  consequence  is  that  few  men  of  distinguished 
merit  enter  public  life. 

In  another  State  it  is  asserted  on  good  authority  that  the 
principal  nominations  in  both  parties  are  dictated  by  one 
and  the  same  person,  or  coterie  of  persons  who  are  acting 
together  for  their  individual  interests. 

Let  me  read  an  extract  from  a  letter  received  from  one 
of  the  best-known  and  most  public-spirited  men  in  the 
United  States.  He  has  held  many  responsible  public  offices. 
His  name  is  known  to  you  all,  but,  as  I  can  not  use  it,  I  will 
say  that  it  commands  respect  in  all  parties.  He  says 
briefly :  "  The  evil  to  be  remedied  is  the  dictation  of  the 
political  boss.  As  parties  are  now  constituted,  nominations 
are  made,  not  by  the  community  or  any  considerable  portion 
of  it,  but  by  a  single  man,  who,  for  the  time  being,  is  in 
control  of  the  party  machine.  I  never  held  office  except  by 
the  consent  of  such  a  boss,  and  when  I  rebelled  against  him 
I  was  defeated.  I  know  of  no  remedy  for  this  state  of 
things,  because  the  public  stand  idly  by  and  permit  the 
dictation,  and  seem  rather  to  enjoy  the  results  of  it.  Edu- 
cation and  intelligence  have  always  been  put  forward  as 
the  proper  antidotes  for  political  evils,  but  my  observation 
leads  me  to  think  that  the  educated  portion  of  the  com- 
munity is  more  apt  to  follow  the  machine  than  any  other 
portion  of  it,  because  the  uneducated  can  be  purchased, 
while  the  enlightened  are  probably  beyond  the  reach  of 
that  temptation." 

This  form  of  criticism  is  not  confined  to  any  one  party. 


96  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

The  complaint  is  general  and  practically  unanimous  among 
thinking  men  that  party  management  has  become  so  cen- 
tralized in  persons  controlling  the  patronage  that  they  make 
the  party  nominations. 
Let  us  now  inquire, 

WHY  is  PARTY  MANAGEMENT  UNDULY  CENTRALIZED? 

When  criticism  is  offered  on  this  point,  the  first  retort  one 
hears  is :  "  Whose  fault  is  it  ?  "  There  is  no  attempt  at 
denial,  but  the  sins  of  all  are  laid  at  the  door  of  those  who  ab- 
stain from  attendance  at  the  primaries.  But  who  are  those 
people  who  so  sadly  neglect  their  political  duties  ?  I  believe 
the  answer  given  to  this  question  by  Mr.  Joseph  H.  Choate 
is  generally  accepted  as  correct.  He  says  they  are  "  the  great 
body  of  the  educated  men  of  the  country  and  the  still  greater 
body  of  business  men  of  the  country."  The  reasons  for 
this  neglect  are  manifold.  The  citizens  referred  to  by  Mr. 
Choate  are  busily  engaged  throughout  the  day  in  an  exhaust- 
ing pursuit  of  their  private  business,  and  when  night  comes, 
which  is  the  time  when  most  political  organizations  take 
action,  they  are  fatigued,  and  their  home,  or  some  place  of 
amusement,  is  more  congenial  to  their  tastes.  Besides, 
when  they  are  induced  to  attend,  they  find  the  surroundings 
not  at  all  pleasing.  As  they  seldom  attend  the  meetings, 
they  are  unknown  to  their  associates.  Consequently  they 
have  very  little  weight  in  the  organization.  They  are  will- 
ing to  do  what  they  can,  but  they  do  not  know  how  to  go 
about  it,  and  have  not  the  time  or  the  inclination  to  enter  into 
any  heated  contests  for  the  control  of  the  primary  organiza- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  those  voters  who  are  not  accus- 
tomed to  spend  their  evenings  at  home  are  out  in  full  force, 
as  the  political  organization  is  to  them  more  or  less  of  a  club 
home.  They  know  the  frequenters  of  the  primary,  and  are 
well  known.  Their  evenings  at  the  primary  are  spent  more 
or  less  congenially,  and  thus  it  happens  that  they  become 
attached  to  the  leaders  of  the  organization,  and  between 
them  there  is  more  or  less  fellowship.  This  is  only  natural. 
In  any  sort  of  organization  the  work  is  apt  to  devolve  on  a 
few,  and  as  the  work  falls  on  a  few,  the  management  is 
likely  to  drift  into  their  own  hands.  The  less  work  that  is 
done  by  any  member,  the  less  'he  is  likely  to  be  called  upon  to 
take  any  active  part. 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  97 

THE  EEMEDY  NOW  IN  USE 

for  the  neglect  of  the  primary  is  described  by  Mr.  Theodore 
Roosevelt  in  his  essay  on  Practical  Politics.  Under  the 
head  of  Beating  the  Machine  he  says :  "  In  the  better 
wards  the  difficulty  comes  in  drilling  a  little  sense  and 
energy  into  decent  people.  They  either  do  not  care  to  com- 
bine, or  else  refuse  to  learn  how.  In  one  district  we  did  at 
one  time,  and  for  a  considerable  period,  get  control  of  affairs 
and  elect  a  set  of  almost  ideal  delegates  and  candidates  to 
the  various  nomkiating  and  legislative  bodies,  and  in  the 
end  took  an  absolutely  commanding,  though  temporary,  posi- 
tion in  the  State,  and  even  in  national  politics.  This  was 
done  by  the  efforts  of  some  twenty  or  thirty  young  fellows 
who  devoted  a  large  part  of  their  time  to  thoroughly  organ- 
izing and  getting  out  the  respectable  vote." 

If,  then,  we  are  to  assume  that  the  primary  political 
organizations  are  not  what  they  should  be,  and  that  the  only 
present  remedy,  as  Mr.  Roosevelt  puts  it,  "  is  by  the  united 
and  persistent  effort  of  those  who  are  least  likely  to  engage  in 
that  pursuit,"  is  it  not  time  to  recognize  the  fact  that  that 
agency  can  not  be  relied  upon  ?  I  think  it  is.  The  facts 
have  proved  it  a  hundred  times,  and  all  admit  it.  This  brings 
up  the  question  :  "  What  shall  be  done  ?  "  To  this  point  I 
will  recur  before  closing. 

RECIPROCAL  DUTIES  OF  STATE  AND  CITIZEN. 

In  order  to  make  effective  the  remedy  referred  to  by  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  it  seems  to  be  necessary  for  citizens  to  devote  not 
only  a  considerable  portion  of  their  time,  but  to  do  so  in  an 
employment  which  is  not  congenial  to  their  tastes.  That  it 
is  the  duty  of  each  citizen  to  give  a  reasonable  amount 
of  his  time,  and  to  expend  a  reasonable  amount  of  en- 
ergy, in  securing  proper  nominations  to  public  office,  all 
will  admit.  Each  citizen  undoubtedly  owes  this  duty  to  the 
State,  and  owing  to  this  duty  to  the  State,  the  State  in  turn 
is  obligated  to  furnish  him  with  the  means  whereby  the 
time  and  energy  which  duty  requires  him  to  give  shall  be 
expended  in  a  manner  that  shall  make  his  effort  felt  in  the 
result.  It  can  not  justly  require  him  to  give  up  a  large  por- 
tion of  his  time  and  require  him  to  study  and  practice  what 
has  become  a  profession  in  order  that  his  influence  shall  be 
felt  in  making  nominations.  The  State  has  also  a  duty  to 


98  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

the  citizen  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  it  prints  the  ballots. 
It  should  see  to  it  that  the  names  of  the  candidates  which  it 
prints  upon  the  ballots  to  be  cast  by  the  voter  are  not  chosen 
through  fraud  and  trickery.  As  it  is  useless  for  single 
individuals  to  go  to  the  polls  without  prior  organization  in 
the  hope  of  electing  an  independent  candidate  to  office,  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  State  to  see  to  it  that  the  organizations 
among  voters,  so  far  as  they  operate  to  place  candidates  in 
nomination,  conform  to  fair  and  reasonable  rules. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  the  present  means  of  voting, 
and  present  means  afforded  voters  for  united  action.  Let 
us  now  turn  our  attention  to 

REMEDIES. 

These  we  will  treat  in  two  chapters :  one  relating  to  so- 
called  election  machinery  and  the  other  to  nominating  ma- 
chinery. 

If  any  one  expects  to  have  provided  an  infallible  remedy 
for  all  political  evils,  he  will  do  me  a  favor  by  laying  aside 
such  a  violent  supposition.  The  best  that  can  properly  be 
expected  is  something  in  the  nature  of  suggestions  which, 
let  us  hope,  may  be  worthy  of  consideration. 

The  first  improvement  I  wish  to  urge  in  relation  to 

ELECTION  MACHINERY 

is  the  adoption  of  a  means  whereby  voters  of  different  par- 
ties can  unite  at  an  election  without  the  voters  of  either 
party  abandoning  their  candidate.  In  other  words,  a  means 
whereby  each  party  can  support  its  own  candidate,  and  at 
the  same  time  unite  with  another  to  defeat  a  third,  and 
thus  prevent  minority  elections.  The  means  I  wish  to 
advocate  for  this  purpose  is  very  simple.  It  is  this :  Per- 
mit each  voter  to  indicate  on  his  ballot  his  second  choice 
as  well  as  his  first  choice  candidate.  This  he  can  do  very 
easily  where  the  genuine  Australian  blanket  ballot  is  used. 
The  voter  would  simply  have  to  mark  the  figure  1  opposite 
the  name  of  his  first-choice  candidate,  and  the  figure  2 
opposite  his  second  choice.  Then,  when  the  time  comes 
to  count  the  votes,  let  each  ballot  be  counted  according 
to  the  first  choice,  and  without  any  reference  to  the  second 
choice.  If  the  result  of  this  count  should  be  that  no 
candidate  received  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast,  let  the 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  99 

candidate  having  the  least  number  of  first-choice  votes  re- 
tire from  the  race,  and  then  let  the  ballots  cast  by  the 
persons  who  supported  him  be  redistributed  according  to 
the  second  choice  marked  on  each  ballot. 

Perhaps  you  can  better  understand  by  an  illustration. 
Suppose  in  an  election  A  received  five  votes,  B  four,  and  C 
three.  If  we  stop  here,  A  would  be  elected.  Suppose,  how- 
ever, that  each  person  who  voted  for  0  had  written  on  his 
ballot  these  words :  "  I  give  my  vote  for  C  unless  he  proves 
to  be  the  least  popular  candidate ;  in  that  case  I  vote  for 
B."  Now,  if  these  three  ballots  cast  for  0  are  to  go  as  they 
are  marked,  B  will  have  seven  votes,  and  be  elected,  while  A 
will  have  only  five.  Without  resorting  to  numbers,  an  apt 
illustration  can  be  made  by  extending  the  last  three  fingers 
on  one  hand.  In  that  case  the  middle  finger  would  represent 
the  greatest  number  of  votes  cast  for  a  candidate ;  the  third 
finger  the  next  lower,  and  the  little  finger  the  number  of 
votes  cast  for  the  candidate  having  the  least  number  of  sup- 
porters. By  this  illustration  it  will  be  seen  that  if  the 
length  of  the  little  finger  be  added  to  the  length  of  the  third 
finger,  the  combined  length  would  greatly  exceed  that  of 
the  middle  finger.  Thus  the  candidate  represented  by  the 
third  finger  would  be  elected  by  a  large  majority. 

Lest  further  details  might  not  prove  interesting  on  this 
occasion,  we  will  pass  this  topic,  leaving  those  who  care  to 
do  so  to  examine  this  point  more  fully  by  reading  the  arti- 
cle entitled  Election  by  the  Majority,  in  the  December, 
1890,  number  of  the  Century  Magazine.  Another  descrip- 
tion may  also  be  found  on  page  4  of  the  New  York  Trib- 
une of  October  28,  1891,  under  the  head  of  A  New  Method 
of  Voting. 

In  approaching  the  second  suggested  method  of  improve- 
ment, I  wish  to  recall  to  your  mind  the  part  played  in  local 
elections  by  the  introduction  of  national  or  other  irrelevant 
issues.  I  wish  you  to  call  to  mind,  also,  the  motives  for 
bringing  forward  such  issues.  There  seem  to  be  but  two. 
One  is  to  make  use  of  a  confusion  of  issues  as  a  means  of 
securing  spoils.  Another  is  to  hold  a  party  together  for 
action  when  an  issue  is  properly  presented. 

While  it  may  be  perfectly  proper  to  keep  a  party  together 
for  use  as  occasion  may  arise,  it  is  certainly  improper  to  use 
a  national  issue  as  a  means  of  inducing  voters  to  support 
unworthy  candidates  in  local  elections  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  the  spoils  of  office. 


100  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

The  best  remedy  for  this  state  of  affairs  which  has  oc- 
curred to  me  would  be  to  allow  each  party  to  have  its  party 
principle  printed  at  the  head  of  the  blanket  ballot  furnished 
by  the  State,  and  thus  submit  the  same  to  the  voters  for 
their  approval  or  rejection  by  a  direct  vote.  For  example, 
the  principles  at  the  head  of  the  blanket  ballot  might  read  : 

Free  Coinage,  j 
Free  Trade,  j 
Prohibition, 


Then,  when  the  voter  came  to  vote,  he  would  be  enabled 
to  approve  the  principle  put  forth  by  one  party,  and  at  the 
same  time  support  the  candidate  of  another  party  without 
danger  of  his  vote  being  misconstrued,  thus  affecting  a 
national  issue  in  a  manner  he  may  wish  to  avoid.  Then, 
too,  a  direct  expression  of  principle  on  the  part  of  voters 
generally  would  be  far  more  satisfactory  than  the  present 
speculative  inferences.  Such  an  expression  would  be  some 
sort  of  a  guide  to  legislative  bodies,  and  an  index  to  the 
feeling  of  the  public  on  the  most  prominent  issues  of  the 
day.  Of  course  such  voting  would  be  of  no  effect  other 
than  advisory,  but  that  is  sufficient.  It  is  now  thought  de- 
sirable to  fight  whole  campaigns  to  obtain  the  same  result 
by  indirect  means.  Many  elections  are  now  fought  and 
won  on  the  points  that  would  be  involved  in  such  a  vote. 
It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that,  to  say  the  least,  no  harm 
could  be  done  by  trying  the  experiment.  I  believe,  with 
proper  provisions  for  ascertaining  the  result,  it  could  be 
made  to  take  the  national  issue  out  of  local  affairs,  and 
would  at  the  same  time  rob  the  spoils  system  of  a  most 
effective  cloak. 

The  remainder  of  what  I  shall  say  on  remedies  will  be 
devoted  to  the  means  by  which  nominations  should  be 
made.  That  means  is  often  called 

NOMINATING  MACHINERY. 

To  recall  to  your  minds  the  present  method  of  making 
nominations,  permit  me  to  quote  the  remark  of  a  prominent 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  101 

politician  made  to  me  a  few  days  since.  He  said :  "  It's 
great  sport  to  see  people  go  to  the  polls  in  herds  and  vote 
like  cattle  for  the  ticket  we  prepare.  Reformers  don't  begin 
at  the  right  point.  They  should  begin  at  the  place  where 
nominations  are  made.  The  people  think  they  make  the 
nominations,  but  we  do  that  business  for  them." 

Let  us  now  aim  at  the  point  where  nominations  are  made. 
To  this  end  we  will  proceed  to  the  next  suggested  remedy, 
viz. :  If  the  parties  do  not  voluntarily  do  so,  let  the  State, 
by  a  law,  provide  a  set  of  just  and  equable  rules  under  which 
all  party  nominations  must  be  made.  If  we  would  call 
such  a  set  of  rules  a  machine,  let  it  be  so  perfect  in  its 
operation  that  the  product  shall  be  the  result  in  equal  pro- 
portions of  the  will  of  each  person  who  votes  in  the  primary. 
Let  the  product  be  not  the  will  of  any  one  man  more  than 
another,  except  so  far  as  that  will  may  be  supported  by  a 
number  of  persons  of  like  mind.  The  construction  of  such 
a  machine,  or  set  of  rules,  would  be  a  task  of  no  mean  im- 
portance. The  first  attempt  would  probably  show  many 
points  of  weakness  which  would  become  manifest  by  use, 
and  would  have  to  be  cured  subsequently.  When  a  nomi- 
nation is  believed  to  be  thoroughly  representative,  and  to 
be  the  result  of  the  true  sentiment  of  the  party,  voters  will 
loyally  support  the  nomination.  And  the  contrary  result 
has  also  been  observed  on  numerous  occasions  where  the 
nomination  was  believed  to  have  been  brought  about  by  too 
great  centralization  of  power.  Therefore,  even  from  a 
party  standpoint,  it  is  for  a  party's  interest  to  provide  suit- 
able means  to  insure  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party  a 
proper  participation  in  nominations.  If  all  parties  should 
pursue  that  course  it  would  be  unnecessary  for  the  State  to 
take  any  action  for  that  purpose.  But  they  will  not,  as 
many  politicians  will  claim  that  the  present  party  machinery 
works  equably  and  justly  to  all. 

It  is  a  principle  of  our  government  to  allow  to  each 
citizen,  as  far  as  practicable,  the  largest  liberty  in  the  con- 
duct of  his  personal  and  political  affairs.  For  that  reason  it 
would  be  best  to  leave,  as  far  as  possible,  the  management 
of  the  details  of  nominating  machinery  to  the  members  of 
the  party  putting  the  same  in  operation.  But  while  it  is 
proper  to  leave  the  details  to  individual  action,  it  is  also 
proper  that  certain  essentials  should  be  required  by  the 
State.  As  to  what  are  those  essentials  we  will  now  proceed 
to  inquire. 


102  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

In  the  present  law  relating  to  primary  elections  there  are 
many  salutary  provisions  which  are  designed  and  have 
operated  to  improve  the  management  of  primary  elections, 
but  its  provisions  should  be  extended.  I  will  mention  only 
such  essentials  as  it  seems  to  me  should  be  added  to  the 
present  law.  First,  in  order  to  entitle  the  party  to  file  a 
certificate  of  nomination,  it  should  be  required  to  proceed  ac- 
cording to  the  law  governing  primary  elections,  and  to  make 
proper  proof  of  that  fact.  Second,  that  law  should  provide 
that  nominations  to  office  should  be  made  by  a  direct  vote 
within  the  party  under  the  Australian  system,  with  the  ad- 
ditional feature  that  the  voters  be  given  the  benefit  of  a 
second  choice.  The  idea  of  making  nominations  by  a  direct 
vote  within  the  party  is  not  new.  It  has  been  in  use  many 
years  in  some  parts  of  Ohio,  where  it  is  known  as  the  Craw- 
ford County  system.  It  has  generally  worked  well.  I  am 
informed,  however,  that  the  greatest  difficulty  is  that  several 
candidates  for  the  nomination  have  sometimes  received 
almost  an  equal  number  of  votes.  On  that  point  there  has 
been  some  discussion  in  Ohio  about  adopting  the  system  to 
which  I  have  already  alluded,  whereby  a  voter  is  allowed  to 
express  his  second  choice.  By  the  adoption  of  that  system 
of  election  at  the  primaries  in  connection  with  the  Austra- 
lian system,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  evil  complained  of 
would  be  overcome. 

Under  the  Australian  system  of  voting,  candidates  for  a 
party  nomination  would  be  presented  to  the  primaries  by 
means  of  nominating  papers  signed  by  individuals.  If  the 
number  of  names  required  to  be  appended  to  such  papers 
was  sufficiently  large  it  would  prevent  an  undue  multiplicity 
of  candidates.  Conventions,  however,  might  be  retained  for 
the  purpose  of  adopting  platforms,  or,  if  it  were  thought 
best,  instead  of  abolishing  the  nominating  feature  of  the 
convention,  that  institution  might  be  used  to  present  several 
names  from  which  the  members  of  the  party  should  select  a 
candidate.  The  third  essential  is  an  adequate  provision  to 
insure  a  full  vote  within  the  party.  To  this  end  the  polls 
might  be  required  to  remain  open  a  certain  length  of  time 
for  every  one  hundred  persons  entitled  to  vote  at  the  pri- 
mary, or  the  polls  might  be  required  to  remain  open  a  certain 
number  of  nights,  or  until  the  voters  on  any  one  night 
should  fall  below  a  certain  number.  If  a  full  vote  within 
the  party  could  not  be  secured  by  other  means,  possibly  it 
would  be  wise  to  make  some  provision  whereby  absentees 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  103 

could  vote  by  mail  or  special  messenger.  In  that  case,  how- 
ever, the  ballot  might  be  sealed  in  a  wrapper  and  have  in- 
dorsed thereon  an  affidavit  of  the  voter  that  the  ballot  had 
been  prepared  secretly,  and  sealed  in  the  wrapper  without 
being  exhibited  to  any  other  person,  and  such  other  matters 
as  might  be  deemed  advisable,  showing,  of  course,  that  the 
voter  was  duly  qualified  to  vote  at  the  election.  TheTi  the 
wrapper  might  be  opened  in  the  presence  of  the  officers  at 
the  primary  and  the  vote  might  be  deposited  in  the  box  with- 
out being  examined  by  any  person.  While  I  do  not  care  to 
commit  myself  at  the  present  time  to  the  advisability  of 
permitting  absentees  to  vote,  I  wish  to  make  note  of  the 
point.  I  presume  that  such  a  method  of  voting  would  be 
open  to  criticism  unless  the  same  should  be  surrounded  by 
very  judicious  safeguards.  If  such  provision  could  be  made, 
which  would  prove  unobjectionable,  it  would  render  it  easy 
for  a  voter  to  take  part  in  the  primary  political  organiza- 
tion, and  that,  I  believe,  according  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  all 
the  authorities  I  have  been  unable  to  consult,  is  the  point 
at  which  our  present  primary  organizations  need  correction. 
On  the  whole,  I  am  convinced  that  no  important  advance 
can  be  made  in  doing  away  with  the  centralized  power  in 
party  organizations  until  the  State,  or  each  political  party,  is 
induced  by  some  organized  effort  to  require  party  nomina- 
tions to  be  made  by  a  direct  vote  within  the  party  under 
rules  insuring  a  full,  fair,  and  effective  vote. 

Hoping  such  an  effort  will  be  made  in  the  near  future, 
and  thanking  you  for  the  courtesy  I  have  received,  I  will 
leave  the  subject  to  the  speakers  who  are  to  follow. 


104  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 


ABSTRACT   OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  WALTER  S.  LOGAN: 

I  agree  with  Mr.  Remsen  very  heartily  in  all*  that  he  says  in  favor  of 
a  fair  representation  and  an  honest  ballot.  These  are  at  the  founda- 
tion of  our  national  life,  and  are  the  basis  of  all  our  hope  for  a  higher 
civilization.  One  is  as  important  as  the  other.  An  honest  represen- 
tation must  precede  an  honest  ballot.  You  can  never  get  the  latter 
until  you  grant  the  former.  You  can  never  persuade  the  people  of 
the  enormity  of  buying  or  selling  a  vote  while  the  Constitution  and 
laws  themselves  provide  for  stealing  away  its  force  and  effect.  If 
there  is  any  difference  in  the  degree  of  the  wrong,  unfair  representa- 
tion is  worse  than  a  dishonest  ballot.  Dishonesty  in  voting  is  the 
crime  of  an  individual ;  dishonesty  in  representation  is  a  crime  of  the 
community  itself.  Take  the  present  laws  of  Connecticut  and  New 
York,  for  example.  It  is  well  known  that  our  system  of  representa- 
tion is  so  unjust  that  thousands  of  voters  are  practically  disfran- 
chised, and  State  legislatures,  and  even  State  governments,  as  at 
present  in  Connecticut,  are  controlled  by  a  minority.  I  agree  with 
Mr.  Remsen  in  advocating  the  Australian  ballot  and  the  Corrupt 
Practices  act.  But  there  are  some  particular  reforms  on  which  he 
seems  to  have  a  patent  of  his  own  which  do  not  commend  themselves 
to  my  judgment.  First,  his  proposition  that  the  voter  should  be 
allowed  to  vote  for  a  second  as  well  as  a  first  choice  of  candidates. 
This  might  work  in  a  company  of  angels,  but  not  in  New  York  or 
Brooklyn.  It  would  encourage  third  parties  and  third  candidates, 
and  I  do  not  believe  in  third  parties.  Each  campaign  should  present 
a  distinct  issue,  and  citizens  should  choose  one  side  or  the  other.  In 
1892  I  hope  to  see  the  campaign  of  1888  fought  over  again,  only  more 
earnestly,  and  with  a  different  result — with  James  G.  Blaine  as  the 
candidate  on  one  side,  and  Grover  Cleveland  on  the  other.  The 
second-choice  device  would  afford  colossal  opportunities  for  fraud. 
It  would  be  easy  for  those  who  manipulate  the  ballots  to  insert  a 
figure  "  2  "  in  such  a  manner  as  to  favor  their  candidates.  I  regard 
the  seller  of  votes  as  a  greater  criminal  than  the  buyer.  I  would  by 
no  means  remove  the  penalty  from  the  vote-buyer,  but  I  would  place 
the  heavier  penalty  on  the  vote-seller.  If  either  was  to  be  relieved 
from  punishment  in  order  to  convict  the  other,  I  would  let  the  vote- 
buyer  go  free,  and  convict,  condemn,  and  punish,  with  all  the  penalties 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  105 

of  the  law  and  all  the  terrors  of  social  ostracism  combined,  the 
ingrate  and  dastard  who  betrays  for  money  and  for  private  gain  the 
highest  trust  which  has  ever  been  imposed  upon  man. 

MR.  WILLIAM  H.  WILLIAMS  : 

I  am  not  one  who  believes  that  whatever  is,  is  right.  Still,  I  do  not 
find  enough  fault  with  the  present  system  to  demand  the  changes 
suggested.  When  a  party  is  formed,  one  of  its  first  acts,  in  conven- 
tion of  the  whole,  is  to  adopt  rules  and  regulations  for  its  government, 
which  are  from  time  to  time  amended.  The  Republican  party  is  now 
working  under  such  rules.  In  each  ward  there  is  an  enrollment  of 
the  citizens  who  recognize  the  principles  of  the  party,  and  voted  its 
ticket  at  the  preceding  election.  A  new-comer  in  Brooklyn,  by 
stating  that  he  voted  for  the  Republican  Governor  at  the  last  election, 
can  get  his  name  enrolled.  In  my  ward  less  than  half  the  voters  are 
members  of  the  ward  organizations.  Prior  to  an  election  the  wards 
comprising  an  assembly  district  meet  and  select  delegates  to  a  con- 
vention which  nominates  an  assemblyman.  If  the  candidate  is  a 
Senator,  the  delegates  are  from  the  wards  that  make  up  the  senatorial 
district— and  so  forth.  Every  member  of  the  party  has  a  right  to  go 
to  the  meetings  for  choosing  delegates.  I  do  not  see  how  the  changes 
suggested  can  improve  upon  this  method.  The  great  evil  is  that  so 
large  a  number  of  members  of  the  party  do  not  attend  the  meetings. 
If  a  sense  of  public  duty  is  not  sufficient,  I  can  not  see  how  legislation 
can  improve  this.  The  remedy  is  in  educating  public  sentiment  so 
that  each  shall  regard  this  as  a  fundamental  duty  which  he  owes  to 
his  country.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  voting  ought  to  be  made 
compulsory.  This  rule  has  worked  well  as  applied  to  the  jury  system. 
Why  not  make  the  same  law  applicable  in  politics  ?  I  do  not  believe 
in  the  stay-at-home  theory,  nor  do  I  believe  in  dissociating  national 
and  local  questions.  We  must  not  divide  a  people  into  too  many 
parties.  Election  statistics  show  that  the  less  the  importance  of  the 
office  the  smaller  is  the  vote.  With  separate  election  days  we  should 
find  the  vote  for  President  very  full,  and  that  for  aldermen  very 
small.  It  is  the  people  who  are  close  to  the  line  which  divides  the 
parties  who  determine  elections.  Whatever  education  or  legislation 
will  make  every  individual  feel  it  his  duty  to  have  a  choice  between 
parties  and  public  policies,  and  express  it  by  ballot,  ought  to  be 
adopted.  If  all  would  do  so,  they  would  find  the  good  people  to  be  in 
the  majority,  and  the  evils  of  which  we  complain  would  be  corrected. 


106  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot. 

DR.  ROBERT  Gr.  ECCLES: 

I  should  like  to  ask  the  lecturer  how  the  blanket  ballot  would  pre- 
vent the  indirect  buying  of  votes  by  paying  men  for  not  registering. 

MR.  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR: 

When  the  palaeontologist  of  the  twentieth  century  looks  back  on 
these  times,  I  think  one  of  the  most  surprising  things  to  him  will  be 
the  utter  absurdity  of  our  ballot  systems,  and  the  fuss  and  fury  we 
,  have  about  voting.  Our  fathers  shed  their  blood  for  the  sacred  right 
of  representation,  but  we  trample  it  under  foot.  I  would  rather  trust 
the  government  of  the  city  of  New  York  to-day  to  the  people  who  do 
not  vote  than  to  those  who  do.  Yet  if  any  attempt  were  made  to 
abridge  the  suffrage  there  would  be  armies  and  battles  and  bloodshed 
in  its  defense.  We  have  heard  to-night  of  devices  to  secure  "  minority 
representation."  Why,  we  have  it  already,  and  nothing  else.  I  can 
name  ten  men  in  this  city  who  can  say  who  will  be  the  next  mayor. 
With  their  support,  I  should  be  mayor  myself ;  and  I  should  repre- 
sent the  minority.  Mr.  Logan  opposes  the  second  choice,  but  the 
second  is  often  superior  to  the  first.  I  consider  this  device  of  Mr. 
Remsen's  an  excellent  one.  In  Rhode  Island  an  absurd  law  compels 
them  to  hold  elections  over  and  over  again,  until  some  candidate 
obtains  a  majority  of  all  the  votes.  Mr.  Remsen's  device  would  avoid 
this.  We  need  an  honest  ballot ;  everybody  believes  in  that.  But  we 
shall  never  have  it  until  we  begin  at  the  other  end.  I  would  have 
registration  for  the  primaries.  At  the  election  we  can  choose  only  one 
of  two  candidates — often  our  choice  is  one  of  two  evils.  The  delega- 
tion to  the  nominating  convention  really  determines  the  election,  and 
the  power  behind  the  throne  controls  the  delegation.  Let  us  have 
attendance  at  the  primaries  compulsory.  I  don't  want  to  join  any 
party  for  all  time,  but  I  am  willing  to  attend  the  primaries  if  others 
will.  I  should  like  to  have  those  who  believe  in  reforming  the  parties 
from  the  inside  refer  to  a  single  case  where  such  a  reform  has  been 
accomplished.  There  is  not  a  great  moral  influence  of  the  age  which 
has  come  from  the  inside.  It  is  the  independent,  who  will  not  submit 
to  party  dictation,  who  compels  reform.  I  believe  with  the  other 
speakers  in  educating  public  sentiment.  This  must  be  our  final  de- 
pendence in  effecting  political  reforms. 

MR.  REMSEN,  in  closing :  The  argument  that  voters  can  be  bribed 
to  stay  at  home  does  not  reflect  against  the  blanket  ballot.  That  can 
be  done  under  our  present  system.  I  am  obliged  to  Mr.  Logan  for 
admitting  that  the  second  choice  would  work  well  in  a  community 


Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.  107 

of  angels.  I  do  not  claim  it  will  work  better  among  thieves  than  the 
present  system  of  election.  In  the  recent  municipal  election  in  New 
York,  if  the  voters  had  had  a  second  choice,  the  30,000  registered 
voters  who  staid  at  home  would  undoubtedly  have  voted.  Compulsory 
voting  would  be  of  no  use  unless  the  voter  had  the  second  choice,  for 
although  a  voter  may  be  compelled  to  go  to  the  polls,  he  can  not  be 
compelled  to  vote  for  one  of  the  two  principal  candidates.  And  if 
an  elector's  vote  is  not  to  be  counted  for  one  of  the  two  principal 
candidates,  he  might  as  well  stay  at  home. 


THE  LAND  PROBLEM 


BY 

PROF.  OTIS  T.  MASON",  PH.D. 

CURATOR  OP  THE   DEPARTMENT  OF  ETHNOLOGY  IN  THE 

NATIONAL  MUSEUM,  .WASHINGTON,   D.  C. 
PRESIDENT  OP  THE  AMERICAN  FOLK-LORE  SOCIETY 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Carey's  Principles  of  Social  Science,  and  Past,  Present,  and  Future ; 
Walker's  Land  and  its  Rent;  Gunton's  Wealth  and  Progress;  Kin- 
near's  Principles  of  Property  in  Land ;  Spencer's  Justice ;  Tylor's 
Primitive  Culture ;  Lubbock's  Origin  of  Civilization ;  Maine's  Early 
History  of  Institutions,  and  Village  Communities;  Seebohm's  The 
English  Village  Community ;  Laveleye's  Primitive  Property ;  George's 
Progress  and  Poverty,  and  The  Land  Problem  ;  Patten's  Malthus  and 
Ricardo ;  Wallace's  Land  Nationalization ;  Phillips's  Land,  Labor,  and 
Law ;  Davis's  Why  the  Farmer  is  not  Prosperous,  When  the  Farmer 
will  be  Prosperous,  Exhaustion  of  Arable  Lands,  and  Probabilities 
of  Agriculture,  in  Forum,  April,  May,  June,  and  November,  1890. 
Fustel  de  Coulanges's  The  Origin  of  Property  in  Land. 


THE   LAND   PROBLEM. 

BY  PROF.  OTIS  T.  MASON,  PH.  D. 

THE  land  question  is  a  problem  involving  at  this  stage  of 
the  world's  progress  many  unknown  quantities,  to  the  solu- 
tion or  satisfaction  of  which  the  acutest  minds  have  de- 
voted their  best  thoughts.  It  was  a  very  simple  problem  at 
the  beginning  of  human  history,  as  we  shall  see ;  but  it  will 
never  be  a  very  simple  problem  again.  On  the  contrary, 
as  the  years  go  by  it  will  become  only  the  more  complex. 
Upon  many  of  its  factors,  you  will  agree,  too  much  effort 
has  been  bestowed.  To  offer  an  original  idea  upon  these 
is  scarcely  possible.  Daily  journals,  periodicals,  transactions 
of  societies,  blue-books,  national  records,  reports  of  com- 
missions and  of  bureaus,  are  the  repositories  of  an  illimit- 
able literature  upon  the  separate  parts  of  the  structure  in 
its  finished  and  highly  complex  condition. 

In  ordinary  parlance,  the  land  is  that  part  of  the  earth's 
surface  which  Lord  Byron  has  characterized  mankind  as 
marking  with  ruin.  In  all  of  our  school-books  we  learned 
that  the  surface  or  skin  of  the  earth  is  divided  into  land 
and  water,  giving  the  latter  the  lion's  share. 

But  when  men  discuss  the  land  question  and  seek  to  legis- 
late about  it,  they  accept  no  such  boundaries  for  the  term, 
but  persistently  give  to  it  a  wider  inclusion  and  lay  their 
maps  and  charts  and  deeds  over  the  entire  surface  of  the 
globe,  its  waters  as  well  as  its  lands.  They  sink  their  shafts 
thousands  of  feet  down  into  its  strata,  dredge  the  bottom 
of  the  seas,  pierce  the  air  with  shafts  and  chimneys,  dis- 
charging their  grimy  sewage  into  the  very  fountain  of  life, 
and  by  many  selfish  devices  veil  the  lace  of  the  sun  from 
millions  of  their  fellow-creatures.  We  may  therefore  pro- 
ceed to  accept  their  practical  interpretation  of  the  term 
land,  and  ask  what  all  these  things  have  to  say  of  the  past, 
and  what  their  plans  may  be  for  the  future  welfare  or 
misery  of  humanity.  If  possible,  we  may  withhold  our  gaze 
altogether  from  the  present  legal  and  political  elements  of 
the  problem — the  adult  stage — and  regard  the  testimony  of 
the  earth  itself  much  in  the  spirit  of  the  archaeologist  or  the 


112  The  Land  Problem. 

palaeontologist.  Surely,  if  the  earth  has  witnessed  a  great 
series  of  economic  and  industrial  phenomena,  it  has  some 
marks  thereof  left  upon  itself,  and  is  now  receiving  some 
impressions  therefrom.  These  we  may  study  one  by  one 
with  profit,  just  as  our  scientific  friends,  legislators,  and 
business  men  draw  their  wisdom  from  the  experiences  of 
others  and  from  the  past. 

In  this  inquiry,  the  land  or  the  earth  as  modified  by  and 
modifying  human  life — its  thoughts,  its  industries,  its  arts, 
its  speech,  its  customs,  its  societies,  its  laws,  its  beliefs,  its 
cults — includes  the  land  surface  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
deepest  possible  mine  or  artesian  well ;  all  the  aqueous  mass, 
that  is,  every  drop  of  water  in  the  seas  and  out  of  them, 
for  there  is  "no  telling  when  any  drop  may  enter  the  circle 
of  human  agencies  and  ownerships  ;  the  circumambient  air, 
every  gallon  of  that  aerial  ocean  which  swathes  the  world 
and  vitalizes  all  living  things,  the  common  carrier  of  clouds 
and  birds,  of  health  and  disease,  of  music  and  perfumes, 
of  industry  and  commerce.  As  modifying  and  modified  by 
human  conduct,  as  subject  of  preemption  and  monopoly, 
not  only  the  masses  just  mentioned  are  included,  but  mo- 
tions and  powers,  even  gravity,  mechanical  properties,  physi- 
cal forces,  chemical  activities,  vital  phenomena  of  plants  and 
animals,  may  all  be  covered  by  patents,  and  their  uses  be- 
come a  matter  of  legislation.  I  had  almost  said  men  them- 
selves and  women,  when  I  remember  how  like  things  and 
chattels  they  frequently  are,  and  how  their  motions  and 
thoughts  are  at  the  command  of  other  fellow-beings. 

These  constitute  the  earth,  the  land  of  my  definition 
together  with  such  sunlight  and  moonlight  and  starlight 
and  cosmic  forces  as  our  race  may  subdue  and  preempt. 
Some  of  these  things  are  still  beyond  our  caveats  and  pre- 
scriptions ;  they  are  still  untrammeled,  and  with  these  at  this 
time  we  have  naught  to  do.  There  is  no  patent  on  them  ; 
each  human  being  has  unlimited  access  thereto. 

From  one  point  of •  view,  the  earth  appears  to  us  as  a  reser- 
voir, a  store-house,  a  larder.  Emerson  tells  us  that  "  there 
is  nothing  great  but  the  inexhaustible  wealth  of  Nature." 
It  is  possible,  however,  in  the  examination  of  this  store-house, 
to  find  out  that  many  articles  in  the  account  of  stock  are 
extremely  rare  and  high-priced.  Many  of  them  may  be 
wasted  irrecoverably,  many  of  them  are  capable  of  recuper- 
ation, many  of  them  are  susceptible  of  irremediable  con- 
tamination and  deterioration.  This  subject  is  not  a  matter 


The  Land  Problem.  113 

for  poets,  but  for  business  men.  The  race  are  the  owners  of 
the  earth,  which  is  all  they  have.  It  is  their  heritage. 
Each  piece  of  property  in  the  manifest  has  values,  and 
these  values  are  in  their  keeping.  The  thin  layer  of  arable 
land  is  one  of  these. 

You  are  well  aware  that  in  our  day  the  land-battle  is 
waged  quite  unequally  over  the  things  and  forces  that  I 
have  described.  The  contest  is  chiefly  over  what  Mr.  McGee 
has  expressively  characterized  as  the  thin  veneering  of  soil 
upon  which  so  much  human  industry  is  expended.  This  is 
one  item  and  a  very  valuable  one,  but  not  more  so  than  some 
others,  the  facility  of  which  for  waste,  the  difficulties  of 
which  of  recuperation,  the  possibilities  of  which,  are  greater 
still. 

"  The  chief  wealth  of  the  world  comes  from  the  soil. 
Some  food  is  gathered  in  the  waters,  materials  for  shelter 
and  apparatus  are  yielded  by  quarries  and  mines,  fuels  and 
illuminants  are  from  the  earth,  but  the  materials  of  food 
and  fabrics  are  from  the  soil.  The  sustenance  of  man  and 
his  beast  friends  of  the  remotest  kind,  the  productions  of 
the  forests,  all  fibers  and  nutritive  plants,  even  the  stuffs  of 
skin,  wool,  fur,  hair,  silk,  are  derived  from  the  land.  The 
manipulation  and  commerce  of  all  these  depend  on  wind 
and  water  and  coal  and  metals,  but  the  most  precious  of  all 
resources  is  that  extremely  thin  cover  of  arable  soil  that  is 
so  easily  dissipated  and  so  hardly  recuperated."  *  A  similar 
panegyric  and  caution  could  be  framed  for  the  other  re- 
sources of  the  earth. 

Now,  let  us  take  another  point  of  view,  a  more  advan- 
tageous situation  for  comprehending  the  earth  truly.  All 
the  items  named  in  my  definitions  are  not  so  many  articles 
in  a  variety  store  or  in  a  wholesale  jobbing  establishment. 
The  material  earth,  the  waters,  the  atmosphere,  the  forces 
and  activities  of  Nature,  are  a  complex  unit,  like  a  machine, 
"  a  great  factory  or  shop  of  power,  with  its  rotating  times 
and  tides."!  Each  wheel  has  reference  to  every  other 
wheel,  each  part  to  every  other  part.  So  that  as  history 
has  progressed,  men  have  come  to  know  that  in  their  ad- 
justments of  the  things  to  be  done  in  one  direction  they 
must  study  the  bearings  of  this  change  upon  the  whole 
mass.  The  geographers  of  our  childhood — Humboldt,  Kit- 

*  McGee.    Mississippi  Old  Fields,  A.  A.  A.  S.,  Washington,  1801. 
t  Emerson.    Letters  and  Social  Aims.    Boston,  1883,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co., 
p.  135. 


114  The  Land  Problem. 

ter,  Guyot — never  tired  in  speaking  of  the  earth  as  a  whole, 
systematically  constructed  of  many  related  parts,  a  cosmos, 
a  very  complex  unit,  whose  land  and  water  areas  and  con- 
figurations, whose  elevations  and  depressions,  whose  fertile 
and  arid  lands,  whose  arctic  and  temperate  zones,  whose 
animal,  vegetal,  and  mineral  resources,  whose  enfolding 
atmosphere,  are  almost  indispensable  to  one  another.  A 
great  change  in  one  of  these  in  the  past  history  of  the 
globe  has  materially  influenced  the  others  more  or  less,  and 
often  transfigured  the  whole  face  of  Nature.  These  changes 
may  come  about  from  secular  causes,  but  they  may  also  be 
wrought  by  the  hand  of  man.  The  miner  ruins  the  land 
for  the  farmer,  the  forester  disturbs  the  relations  of  plant 
and  animal  life,  the  manufacturer  contaminates  the  waters 
for  the  fisherman,  the  careless  filling  of  a  harbor  impover- 
ishes a  whole  State,  the  disturbance  of  insect  or  bird  life 
destroys  millions  of  wealth,  the  exhaustion  of  the  soil  de- 
populates vast  regions. 

"  The  first  tide  of  settlement  entered  Louisiana  and  Mis- 
sissippi from  the  South,  and  its  influence  was  practically 
confined  to  the  lowlands.  The  first  upland  population,  whose 
implements  were  the  rifle  and  the  hunting-knife,  lived  the 
savage  life  of  the  Indian.  The  men  of  the  second  genera- 
tion subsisted  on  the  products  of  the  soil  and  of  the  chase. 
In  the  third  generation  the  slave-holder  not  only  subsisted 
on  but  exported  the  products  of  the  soil.  The  civil  war  im- 
poverished the  farmer,  liberated  his  slaves,  and  cultivated 
acres  were  abandoned  by  thousands.  The  hills  were  at- 
tacked by  the  rains  and  fertile  fields  were  invaded  by  gul- 
lies, until  the  soil  of  a  thousand  years'  savings  melted  into 
the  streams,  and  fair  acres  became  bad-lands.  Over  thou- 
sands of  square  miles  the  traveler  is  never  out  of  sight  of 
glaring  sand-wastes  where  once  were  fertile  fields.  It  is 
within  the  truth  to  estimate  that  ten  per  cent  of  the  west- 
ern uplands  of  Mississippi  have  been  ruined  to  agriculture. 
No  one  can  traverse  the  territory  so  terribly  invaded  with- 
out feeling  that  the  State  loses  each  year  in  value  of  real  es- 
tate more  than  she  gains  from  all  sources. 

"  Furthermore,  this  erosion  is  carried  into  the  valleys  to 
overwhelm  bridges,  invade  roadways,  convert  fertile  low- 
lands into  treacherous  quicksands  or  blistering  deserts. 
Not  only  is  the  humus  carried  away,  but  the  veneer  of  brown 
loam  is  also  removed,  leaving  only  inferior  soil  stuff.  The 
destruction  is  irremediable  by  human  craft ;  the  fertile  loam 


The  Land  Problem.  115 

once  removed  can  never  be  restored.  The  creation  of  for- 
c.4-rlad  hills  and  prairie  in  the  prehuman  period  estab- 
lished a  stable  equilibrium  which  is  rudely  broken  when 
cultivation  011  a  large  scale  is  attempted."  * 

I  think  we  may  take  a  still  more  exalted  view  of  the 
earth,  looking  upon  it  not  only  as  a  pile  of  available  re- 
sources, or  even  as  an  orderly  arranged  mass ;  but,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  botanist,  the  zoologist,  the  anthropolo- 
gist, the  evolutionist,  we  may  almost  regard  it  as  an  organ- 
ized collection  of  parts,  having  had  a  germinal  period,  peri- 
ods of  transformation  and  fructification — in  short,  its  on- 
togeny or  individual  evolution.  We  are  not  dealing  with  a 
homogeneous  mass  when  we  talk  of  dividing  it  up  or  of  ap- 
propriating portions  of  it.  Nor  is  it  sufficient  merely  to 
.scrutinize  it  as  an  orderly  cosmos  when  we  proceed  to  legis- 
late about  it.  These  are  well  and  they  are  necessary,  but  a 
more  exalted  idea  still  is  demanded  on  the  part  of  those 
who  bring  the  earth  into  the  arena  of  political  philosophy. 

Whatever  our  theory  of  its  origin,  the  earth  may  be  dis- 
cussed as  a  living,  thinking  being,  capable  of  teaching  cause 
and  effect,  of  rewarding  the  wise  and  of  punishing  the  un- 
wise, capable  of  barbarizing  and  being  barbarized,  of  civiliz- 
ing and  of  being  civilized,  f  And  this  discussion  is  regard- 
less of  our  theory  of  its  origin.  If  we  are  creationists,  then 
we  have  only  to  transfer  the  personality  to  the  ever-present 
Creator  whose  servant  the  earth  is.  If  we  are  theistic  evo- 
lutionists, then  we  conceive  that  this  ever-present  Intelli- 
gence has  manifested  Himself  in  the  earth  as  its  vivifying, 
organizing  force.  If  we  are  agnostic  evolutionists,  then  we 
regard  the  power  as  residing  in  Nature  itself  to  confer  these 
ethical  qualities  and  prerogatives,  though  we  know  Him 
not.  If  we  are  atheistic  evolutionists,  the  earth  is  only  the 
more  exalted  in  our  thoughts  and  endowed  with  absolute 
power.  With  some  of  the  older  thinkers  we  may  believe  in 
a  soul  of  the  world,  the  Welt-geist.  Then,  when  we  compass 
the  results  that  have  been  achieved,  we  are  still  in  a  rever- 
ential mood  before  a  being  of  such  cleverness  and  power. 

In  any  event,  and  we  need  to  dwell  upon  the  subject  no 
longer,  the  highest  conceptions  of  the  earth  or  land  ques- 

*  McGee.    On  the  Mississippi  Old  Fields,  A.  A.  A.  S.,  1891. 

tl  have  been  a  thousand  times  interested  to  notice  how  often  in  the  Old 
Testament  the  earth  is  referred  to  as  the  delegated  agent  of  God.  with  plenary 
powers,  to  brin;;  forth  living  things  (Gen.  i,  11);  as  making  covenants  (ib.  ix,  13)  ; 
as  d.-vouriiig  men  (in  many  references);  as  executing  judgment  (Job,  xx,  27);  as 
enriching  <Ps.  l.wii ;  Ezek.  xxxiv,  27),  etc.  Consult  any  concordance  under  the 
word  "  earth  "  or  its  synonyms. 


116  The  Land  Problem. 

tion  demand  the  recognition  of  order  and  consequences,  of 
largess  and  property,  of  bounty  and  retribution,  of  disease 
and  recuperation.  We  are  in  presence  of  a  something,  no 
matter  what,  that  has  come  to  be  what  it  is,  has  grown ; 
that  can  be  sick  and  recover  or  make  sick  and  cause  to  re- 
cover ;  that  can  measure  out  justice  and  call  the  guilty  to 
account.  No  earthly  government  has  ever  had  such  a  con- 
sistent legislature,  such  incorruptible  judges,  such  a  power- 
ful and  effective  executive,  with  its  ever  vigilant  police  and 
executioners,  or  such  a  bountiful  treasury  for  the  reward  of 
the  good.* 

Now,  nearly  all  of  the  books  that  I  have  read  view  the 
subject  as  a  question  of  immediate  results  and  expedients ; 
but  a  few  writers  take  it  up  from  the  side  of  the  earth,  as  a 
something  that  has  had  a  long  evolution  and  that  has  never 
been  unmindful  altogether  of  human  history.  It  is  far  more 
easy  to  find  a  paper  devoted  to  some  immediate  pain  or 
wound  of  society  associated  with  the  ownership  of  the  soil 
than  to  find  one  discussing  the  claims  of  the  earth  on  us 
drawn  from  a  study  of  the  correlations  of  earth  and  man 
through  all  the  ages.  So  far  as  the  earth  has  acted,  as  trans- 
formed and  transforming,  it  opens  a  vast  anthropological 
study.  Do  you  believe  that  the  digging-stick  and  the  dig- 
ger had  any  mutual  duties  in  savagery  ?  That  each  could 
improve  and  be  improved  by  the  other,  until  at  last  the 
one  becomes  the  steam  plow  and  the  other  lord  of  many 
thousand  acres  ?  Do  you  think  that  the  first  savage  who 
carried  a  burden  had  any  moral  and  prudential  relations  to 
his  burden  strap  ?  So  that  each  could  help  and  improve, 
could  be  helped  and  improved  by  the  other,  blessing  and 
blessed,  until  one  became  the  great  burden-train  the  other 
a  railroad  magnate  ?  Once  more,  for  the  illustrations  have 
no  limit,  the  desolate  creature  who  millenniums  ago  con- 
jured the  Promethean  spark  from  two  dried  sticks,  was  he 
not  interested  in  every  way  to  improve  his  fire-sticks,  and 
was  he  not  pari  passu  improved  through  them,  until  by 
and  by  he  could  dispense  with  the  moon  and  stars  by  night, 
the  sun  by  day,  and  could  convert  the  light  of  his  torch  into 
the  motion  of  his  wheels  ? 

*  Assuming  this  point  of  view,  the  Ethical  Society  is  an  institution  for  inquir- 
ing into  duties,  founded  on  law,  obedience  to  which  may  or  not  make  us  happy. 
We  must  obey,  to  live.  If  we  disobey,  we  die.  And  this  is  just  as  true  of  soci- 
eties and  nations  as  of  men.  The  one  saving  clause,  which  in  the  struggle  for 
resistance  has  given  our  race  such  preponderating  momentum,  is  the  fact  that 
in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  obedience  is  followed  by  pleasure. 


The  Land  Problem.  117 

Now,  all  human  inventions  whatsoever,  the  conversion 
of  all  earthly  materials  into  means  of  existence  and  happi- 
ness, have  passed  into  their  anthropological  stage.  The  first 
projectile  was  a  rude  stone  thrown  from  the  hand  of  a  sav- 
age, the  last  is  more  complex  than  the  human  frame,  requir- 
ing hundreds  of  trained  workmen  many  months  to  prepare 
it  for  its  momentary  errand  of  destruction.  If  these  sepa- 
rate pieces  of  mechanism  for  many  hundreds  of  years  have 
been  associated  with  men  as  mutual  friends,  helping  and 
helped,  blessing  and  being  blessed,  the  relations  of  one  to 
the  other  becoming  more  and  more  complex,  there  is  no  es- 
caping the  conclusion  that  the  earth  itself,  the  land  out  of 
which  the  material  came,  over  which  it  was  invented  to 
travel,  for  whose  further  research  and  upturning  many  of 
them  were  devised,  has  stood  in  a  similar  but  more  intense 
relation.  The  earth  has  helped  and  has  been  helped,  im- 
proved and  been  improved,  rejoiced  and  given  joy. 

Again,  it  is  all-important  to  bear  in  mind  that  only  a 
small  part  of  this  world's  largess  lies  on  the  surface.  Its 
endowments  are  promises  and  potentialities,  not  free  gifts. 
"  The  world  is  all  gates,  all  opportunities,  strings  of  tension 
ready  to  be  struck." '•'  At  the  dawn  of  humanity  there  were 
only  two  or  three  favored  spots  on  all  this  globe  equipped  to 
keep  alive  our  race  for  a  single  generation.  The  north  was 
too  cold,  the  equator  was  too  hot ;  this  region  too  dry,  that 
too  wet ;  this  too  poor,  that  too  rich.  Here  were  noxious 
and  venomous  creatures,  there  the  deadly  miasma. 

Not  only  was  standing  room  limited,  but  natural  grains 
and  fruits  were  at  their  poorest.  The  beasts  of  the  field, 
the  fowls  of  the  air,  as  natural  resources,  were  at  their  worst, 
and  could  be  procured  only  at  the  greatest  expenditure  of 
time  and  energy,  and  transported  only  on  the  backs  of  men 
and  women.  The  possibilities  hidden  away  even  under  un- 
favorable locations  to  our  progenitors  we  are  just  beginning 
to  guess.  There  were  materials  and  advantages  spread  on 
the  surface  just  abundant  enough  to  keep  man  alive,  and 
just  concealed  enough  to  whet  his  appetite.  The  cosmos 
appears  to  us  in  the  light  of  a  wise  provider,  who  gives  to 
him  that  earns,  discloses  to  him  that  searches,  rewards  and 
crowns  him  that  wins.  As  a  magazine,  the  earth  is  to  be 
explored  and  its  amounts  and  locations  of  resources  and 
forces  conned.  As  a  machine,  the  power  and  relation  of 

*  Emerson,  op.  ct'f.,  133. 


118  The  Land  Problem. 

parts  are  to  be  closely  studied.  As  a  teacher  and  a  moral 
force,  its  laws  must  be  searched  out  and  its  purposes  known, 
its  punishments  understood,  and  its  promises  appreciated. 

Again,  to  revert  to  the  appliances  of  culture.  All  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  have  not  advanced  equally  in  the  mat- 
ter of  bettering  their  opportunities.  Along  the  march  of 
history,  whole  tribes,  nations,  races,  have  ceased  to  improve 
their  apparatus — they  have  made  them  worse  from  year  to 
year.  And  these  had  their  revenge.  They  have  made  their 
owners  more  miserable  in  return.  If  poor  farmers  build 
wretched  barns  and  fences,  these  are  not  slow  in  making 
farmers  poor  and  wretched.  If  the  carpenter  works  with 
dull  tools,  then  will  his  patronage  be  dull.  If  the  smith 
hammers  cold  iron,  he  will  soon  have  to  eat  a  cold  dinner 
for  his  neglect.  So  the  rule  holds  good  both  ways.  The 
appliances  of  life  are  degraded  and  degrade ;  are  impover- 
ished and  made  poor,  are  wasted  and  their  owners  starve. 

In  a  remarkable  lecture  by  President  Gilman  on  maps 
and  history  he  declares  with  great  emphasis  that  the  true 
relation  of  the  earth  to  civilization  and  politics  and  vice 
versa  will  be  understood  and  studied  with  pleasure  only 
when  we  have  better  maps.  By  this  he  means  that  in  the 
past  the  earth  has  been  the  marshaler  of  nations,  has  spread 
out  homogeneous  stocks  over  the  great  plains  of  the  conti- 
nents, has  packed  the  mountain  valleys  with  kindreds  and 
tongues  and  nations,  has  opened  easy  highways  between 
some  and  separated  others  by  deserts  and  oceans,  has  led 
the  ambitious  and  vigorous  into  fertile  and  productive  areas, 
and  packed  the  feebler  races  into  the  suburbs  of  the  world. 
A  well-trained  student  in  geography  and  geology  may  al- 
most write  the  human  history  of  a  land  whose  people  he  has 
never  seen.  Mark  how  many  times  the  map  of  Europe  has 
been  changed  in  the  historic  period  since  the  "  earth-spirit " 
drew  the  natural  boundaries.  Only  once  in  an  age  do 
mountains  rise  and  new  rivers  run.  This  is  a  serious  event, 
and  is  coupled  with  the  extinction  of  myriads  of  genera  of 
living  things  and  the  recreation  of  the  face  of  Nature. 
Less  than  centuries  are  sufficient  to  efface  political  bound- 
aries. Forms  of  government  do  not  appear  so  stable  as  per- 
sonal and  family  occupation.  Nations  come  and  go ;  but 
any  student  of  ethnology  knows  that,  more  now  than  ever, 
mankind  are  following  these  great  leading  strings  of  prog- 
ress set  by  the  earth  itself. 

In  relation  to  these  resources,  this  cosmos,  this  organized 


The  Land  Problem.  119 

something,  our  race  has  passed  through  a  series  of  epochs 
quite  similar  to  those  into  which  plant  and  animal  life  have 
been  divided.  For  convenience  we  may  say  there  have  been 
eight  such  periods.  Each  period  is  marked  by  certain  char- 
acteristic phenomena,  and,  after  the  first  or  second,  each 
period  not  only  takes  on  new  characteristics,  but  retains,  in 
a  more  or  less  modified  condition,  those  of  all  the  preceding 
periods.  The  plant  life  of  to-day  is  a  comprehensive  series 
of  all  the  plant  life  of  the  globe  from  the  beginning.  The 
animal  life  of  all  palaeontologic  time  is  studied  in  the  light 
of  creatures  now  living  on  the  earth.  I  mean,  therefore, 
that  the  land  problem,  or  the  question  of  legislating  about 
the  earth,  involves  the  study  of  every  question  that  has 
arisen  in  the  ages  regarding  this  same  subject.  Its  true 
solution  sets  the  value  of  all  the  comprehensive  interests  of 
the  world's  societies.* 

In  the  first  period  man  was  absent ;  he  was  present  only 
as  a  promise.  It  was  a  time  of  earth-building,  and,  if  you 
will  not  admit  that  preparation  was  being  made  specially 
for  him,  all  the  materials  out  of  which  he  would  ever  build 
his  nest,  clothe  and  feed  himself,  develop  his  industries  and 
fine  arts  and  find  exercise  and  expression  for  his  activities 
and  thoughts,  were  here.  So  far  as  our  present  needs  go, 
the  surface  of  our  planet  had  come  to  a  tolerably  stable 
equilibrium.  And  if  great  changes  took  place,  they  .were 
not  so  much  due  to  intelligent  animals  as  to  minute  organ- 
isms and  physical  forces.  All  of  those  agencies  through 
which  men  have  since  modified  the  earth  were  in  existence, 
but  their  activities  were  uniform. 

In  the  second  period,  the  first  in  the  history  of  humanity, 
the  earth  movements  continued,  and  to  these  were  added 
the  modifications  produced  by  a  being  in  the  rude  stone 
age,  who  lived  in  caves  and  under  shelters,  who  took  from 
the  bounty  of  the  air,  the  land,  and  the  waters  what  his 
daily  cravings  demanded,  who  thought  that  all  things  were 
alive  like  himself,  whose  marriage  was  a  slender  bond,  and 
whose  family  life  was  little  above  that  of  the  brute.  His  con- 
duct was  entirely  based  on  the  interests  of  the  hour,  and 
for  the  earth  he  had  no  special  thought  in  the  lines  here 
marked  out.  Little  change  was  made  on  the  earth  by  him. 
He  sat  on  Nature's  lap,  and  ate  the  food  that  she  dropped 
into  his  mouth. 

*  Compare  Spencer's  Atlases  of  Sociology,  Morgan's  Ancient  Society,  Mason's 
What  is  Anthropology  ?  for  an  elaboration  of  the  periods  of  civilization  and 
their  accompanying  conducts  ou  the  part  of  man: 


120  The  Land  Problem. 

In  the  third  period  much  of  the  earth  remained  as  at 
first.  In  a  few  areas  primitive  peoples  continued  without 
progress,  but  in  the  most  favored  spots  our  race  discovered 
fire — the  Promethean  spark.  Blessed  and  fatal  gift !  With 
fire  came  a  long  train  of  blessings ;  the  light  of  heaven  was 
let  in  upon  the  dwelling ;  discouraging  forests  and  jungles, 
with  their  malaria,  noxious  insects,  venomous  serpents,  and 
ravening  beasts,  were  subdued  or  removed.  Arts  sprang  up, 
better  houses  were  built,  more  convenient  tools  were  in- 
vented, a  little  navigation  ventured  upon  the  waters.  Social 
life  was  modified  in  its  marriage,  family,  government,  and 
customs.  But  chief  of  all,  for  our  argument,  man  attacked 
the  resources  of  earth  with  firebrands.*  Climate  was  modi- 
fied a  little,  and  the  battle  began  to  be  earnest. 

In  the  fourth  period  there  remained  unknown  lands, 
primitive  tribes,  fire-using  peoples  like  the  Australians ;  but 
in  a  more  favored  spot  was  invented  the  bow,  first  of  that 
long  series  of  devices  which  conquer  distance  and  time  and 
brute  force.  As  a  matter  of  course,  other  arts  improved  as 
well ;  but  the  special  thought  in  mind  now  is  the  on-going 
of  that  battle,  in  the  progress  of  which  men  attacked  the 
treasures  of  the  earth  and  began  to  modify  it.  In  the  chase 
and  in  war  the  feathered  messenger  of  death  plucks  its  vic- 
tories from  the  air,  the  earth,  and  the  sea.  Animal  life  is 
now  to  be  profoundly  modified  until  all  brute  creatures 
shall  be  extinguished  or  subdued.  The  evolution  of  morals 
and  skill  kept  pace  with  these  epoch-making  inventions, 
and  we  may  almost  hear  the  first  expression  of  tender  com- 
passion in  the  twanging  of  the  bowstring  that  gave  a  man 
more  of  the  most  wholesome  food  than  he  could  devour. 

In  the  fifth  period,  while  the  other  characteristics  con- 
tinued, a  new  art  sprang  up — a  very  little  art,  but  the  germ 
of  mighty  industries.  Man  became  an  explorer  into  the 
earth.  He  scratched  its  surface  here  and  there,  to  plant  a 
seed  or  to  dig  some  nutritious  root;  he  quarried  clay  for 
pottery,  stone  for  his  implements  and  ornaments,  and  cop- 
per and  galena  for  his  rude  industries.  The  possibility  of 
having  a  week's  provision  with  him,  of  landing  and  cook- 
ing it  anywhere,  of  being  somewhat  independent  of  Na- 
ture's daily  supply,  set  in  motion  a  long  train  of  useful  arts. 

*  There  is  a  system  of  cultivation  used  in  India  to-day,  especially  on  the  eastern 
frontier  of  Bengal,  in  which  a  tract  of  forest  land  is  cleared  by  fire,  cultivated 
for  a  year  or  two,  and  then  abandoned  for  a  new  tract.  In  southwestern  India 
it  is  called  Coomry,  and  in  Ceylon  it  is  known  as  Chena.  (Yule  &  Burnell,  quoted 
in  Cent.  Diet.) 


The  Land  Problem.  121 

For  our  purpose,  however,  it  is  enough  that  he  began  to 
tear  up  the  earth  and  to  use  up  her  mineral  resources. 
Art,  music,  thought,  religion,  and  morality  moved  upward 
with  the  new  treatment  of  the  earth. 

In  the  sixth  period  animals  were  domesticated ;  the  horse, 
ass,  camel,  ox,  sheep,  goat,  dog,  llama,  poultry,  were  exten- 
sively used.  Cyclopean  walls  were  built.  Engineering  was 
begun.  Canals,  roads,  causeways,  and  bridges  were  planned. 
The  winds,  the  waters,  the  mechanical  powers  were  yoked. 
Almost  all  of  our  peaceful  industries  were  in  vogue  as 
handicrafts.  Language  progressed  to  the  written  stage,  and 
a  symbolic  record  at  least  was  known.  The  priestly  caste 
was  differentiated,  a  pantheon  set  up.  Monogamy  was 
elaborated,  father-right  prevailed,  and  personal  property 
was  recognized.  The  smelting  of  bronze  was  the  most 
marked  characteristic,  since  it  added  the  search  for  precious 
metals,  which  scarifies  the  ground,  turns  the  neighborhood 
into  a  desert,  and  then  removes  the  fickle  population,  whose 
desire  was  not  to  find  a  home,  but  suddenly  to  enrich  them- 
selves. 

The  seventh  period  is  still  in  flourishing  existence  over 
the  best  parts  of  Asia,  in  northern  Africa,  in  eastern  Eu- 
rope, and  in  much  of  Latin  America.  Its  glory  reached  its 
climax  in  the  great  empires  about  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  and  in  the  splendor  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
patriarchal  family  was  more  or  less  established,  with  polyg- 
amous marriage.  The  arts  were  still  largely  handicrafts. 
Transportation  was  over  the  water  and  by  beasts  of  burden. 
Machinery  was  in  its  infancy,  the  race  was  as  busy  as  now, 
but  space  and  time  and  resistance  were  slowly  overcome. 
Great  improvement  was  made  in  government  and  the  art  of 
war,  depending  on  the  increased  production  of  supplies  by 
artificial  means.  Nations  and  national  boundaries  were  es- 
tablished It  was  the  iron  age. 

And  now  we  are  in  the  eighth  period,  with  mariner's 
compass,  printing  press,  gunpowder,  but  pre-eminently  with 
coal.  It  is  the  age  of  machinery  and  all  that  this  implies. 
We  are  in  the  carbon  age.  All  the  wealth,  all  the  learning, 
all  the  experience,  all  the  crime  of  the  past  are  upon  us. 
The  Andamanese,  the  Australian,  the  roving  savages,  the 
sedentary  barbarians,  the  semi-civilized,  the  civilized  after 
old  standards — all  survive  even  in  Brooklyn,  and  the  age  of 
coal  has  touched  only  a  small  share  of  our  race.  The  prog- 
ress of  life  has  noted  the  evolution  of  morals  as  the  indi- 


122  The  Land  Problem. 

vidual  has  acquired  the  means  of  dispensing  freely  a  por- 
tion of  his  gain  to  bless  his  fellow.  The  disposition  of  the 
earth  and  rules  of  the  earth's  conduct  are  becoming  more 
familiar. 

In  all  of  these  periods  there  existed  five  sets  of  phe- 
nomena that  our  enquiry  commands  us  to  observe  carefully  : 
Land  tenure ;  land  waste ;  land  recuperation ;  land  evo- 
lution *  (elaboration  of  the  earth's  crude  resources) ;  land 
ethics. 

In  the  first  period,  man  being  absent,  land  tenure  was  the 
struggle  for  existence  and  the  survival  of  the  best  fitted  to 
survive.  Waste  was  geological,  recuperation  the  work  of 
minute  organisms,  evolution  was  vegetal,  and  animal  prog- 
ress and  conduct  were  "  doing  the  best  for  self-preservation." 
It  is  interesting  to  note  how  many  of  our  intellectual  activi- 
ties, feelings,  wishings,  choosings — in  short,  how  much  of 
our  conduct — was  foreshadowed  in  this  period  by  our  ani- 
mal predecessors. 

In  the  second  period,  the  first  of  humanity,  there  was 
probably  but  one  area  of  occupation,  where  men  huddled 
for  self -protection  and  the  tenure  was  absolutely  commer- 
cial. Waste  was  increased  only  by  the  omnivorous  habit  of 
man ;  he  did  nothing  consciously  to  recuperate  the  earth 
and  was  ignorant  of  its  wonderful  capabilities  under  domes- 
tication. The  most  marked  ethical  improvement  was  the 
altruism  engendered  by  the  prolongation  of  helpless  in- 
fancy. 

In  the  third  period,  land  tenure  was  of  the  horde,  and 
tribal  boundaries  were  natural  boundaries.  Each  man  had 
unlimited  access  to  the  tribal  territory,  in  the  air,  the  water, 
the  land.  The  question  of  disputed  boundaries  was  settled 
by  personal  or  clan  encounter.  The  utmost  prodigality 
prevailed.  No  thought  of  recuperating  wasted  resources 
existed,  and  as  yet  the  possibilities  of  becoming,  lying  dor- 
mant in  the  air  and  land  and  sea,  were  undreamed  of.  On 

*  I  should  explain  more  fully  what  is  intended  by  this  phrase,  land  evolution. 
Every  one  must  have  noticed  the  difference  between  a  lump  of  ore  and  a  cambric 
needle,  a  wild  grape  and  a  garden  grape,  a  wolf  and  a  pointer  dog.  Now,  all 
power  of  coming  to  be  the  latter  in  each  case  existed  in  me  former.  From  one 
point  of  view  it  seems  like  the  simple  letting  loose  of  native  characteristics,  giv- 
ing opportunity  to  a  progressive  spirit  in  Nature.  The  one  becomes  the  other 
by  personal  unfoldings.  That  would  be  evolution.  From  another  point  of  view 
it  is  the  inventive,  creative  genius  of  man  that  transforms  in  each  case,  and  the 
latter  is  not  eroh<ed,  but  elaborated,  from  the  former.  In  both  cases,  however, 
it  is  in  Nature's  shop  or  garden  or  zootechnic  establishment,  in  the  path  of  Na- 
ture's lines  of  action,  that  the  results  are  achieved.  Now,  all  that  man  has  done 
to  coax  or  compel  Nature  into  these  new  revelations  of  herself,  to  cultivate  and 
perfect  and  renew  her,  is  land  evolution  or  elaboration. 


The  Land  Problem.  123 

the  contrary,  whole  regions  deprived  of  fruit  and  game  by 
remorseless  fires  were  abandoned  to  Nature. 

To  morality  this  was  added :  clan  marriage  prevailed  in 
the  tribes,  so  that  to  every  individual  thought  worthy  to 
survive,  possessing  a  clan  standing,  support  and  defense 
were  assured.  This  assurance  of  daily  supply  must  have  added 
greatly  to  longevity.  A  sort  of  forced  respect  for  the  earth 
had  for  its  reward  an  increased  momentum  of  human  life. 

In  the  fourth  period,  the  ownership  of  land,  still  respect- 
ing natural  boundaries,  began  to  assume  a  more  artificial 
form  by  reason  of  improvements  in  the  apparatus  of  war. 
The  possession  of  the  bow  enabled  the  advanced  tribes  to 
draw  their  lines  about  the  game  animals,  the  bird  resorts, 
the  fishing  grounds.  To  mountains  and  impassable  waters 
were  added  other  fences.  Waste  was  more  rapid,  owing  to 
the  increased  means  of  gratifying  new  desires.  Mammals 
and  birds  and  fishes  were  slain  in  sport,  and  often  only  the 
dainty  parts  consumed.  The  dog  became  a  domestic  ani- 
mal and  a  few  other  creatures  disclosed  the  secret  of  Na- 
ture's capabilities  of  education.  No  effort  at  recuperation 
was  needed  and  none  was  made.  Man's  attitude  toward  his 
fellows  was  beginning  to  be  just,  and  blood  or  clan  re- 
venge and  kindness  to  brutes  were  the  contributions  of  the 
age  to  morality. 

The  age  of  pottery  and  of  polished  stone,  of  agriculture 
as  well,  brought  sedentary  life  and  a  brand-new  style  of 
ownership — clan  right  of  tenure.  The  tribal  territory  was 
fixed  somewhat.  The  clan  portion  for  culture  was  marked 
off  and  the  patch  or  portion  which  each  little  group  might 
occupy  was  settled  temporarily.  There  being  no  interna- 
tional law,  all  this  was  in  a  state  of  flux.  The  waste  of  ex- 
hausting fertile  fields,  abandoning  them  and  then  skimming 
others,  began,  and'  I  am  told  that  some  of  our  New  England 
tribes  actually  put  fish  around  their  corn  hills  to  manure 
them.  This,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  the  first  attempt  to  pay 
back  to  Nature  a  matter  of  rent.  In  Peru  and  other  lands 
of  this  grade,  breeds  of  dogs  and  other  domestic  animals 
show  that  the  people  had  been  told  some  of  Nature's  dor- 
mant resources.  I  can  not  find,  however,  that  any  people  of 
this  culture-status  had  dreamed  of  the  time  when  their 
natural  supply  would  disappear  altogether.  The  ethical 
contribution  of  this  period  was  the  introduction  of  forms  of 
justice,  civil  processes,  personal  rights,  somewhat  of  the 
safety  and  importance  of  the  citizen. 


124  The  Land  Problem. 

The  sixth  age  and  the  doctrine  of  divine  sanction  devel- 
oped a  new  element  of  tenure,  well  set  forth  in  the  early  books 
of  the  Bible.  Before  that,  trespass  was  of  man  alone.  But 
in  this  time  domestication  of  animals  became  the  leading 
industry,  and  the  earth  must  now  be  carved  and  staked  off 
differently.  "  Let  there  be  no  strife  between  my  herdsmen 
and  thy  herdsmen  "  was  the  key-note  of  a  land  survey  which 
had  for  its  objective  point  a  well  or  a  spring.  The  pockets 
of  natural  resources  were  the  centers  around  which  the  cir- 
cle was  drawn.  No  grass  seems  to  have  been  sown,  but  the 
greatest  varieties  of  stock  were  raised  and  every  industry  of 
the  world  was  stimulated.  The  mining  and  smelting  of 
bronze  also  introduced  waste  without  recuperation,  by  a 
mighty  stimulus  to  inventive  genius.  The  most  beneficent 
result  of  this  age  was  the  improvement  of  morals.  Over  and 
over  again  the  tribes  or  clans  of  herders  have  been  kept  from 
bloody  wars  by  realizing  that  war  would  be  the  end  of  all  their 
wealth.  So  they  paid  tribute  and  tithes  and  taxes,  and  stayed 
at  home.  They  invented  fortified  corrals  and  entered  into 
treaties  with  other  nomads,  and  established  pueblos  and 
walled  villages  that  were  the  protection  of  the  joint  com- 
mune. 

The  seventh  period  is  the  iron  age  of  history,  lasting 
three  thousand  years  at  least  of  time.  It  is  also  the  age  of 
feudalism,  the  age  of  reckless  waste,  the  age  of  ruins.  Over 
the  areas  of  this  period  Volney  cast  his  eye  when  he  said  : 
"  I  will  go  and  dwell  amid  the  ruins  of  cities  :  I  will  inquire 
of  the  monuments  of  antiquity  what  was  the  wisdom  of  the 
former  ages."  *  And  yet  in  this  period  the  fertile  lands  of 
the  Eastern  continent  were  disclosed,  and  in  its  last  century 
the  whole  world  was  given  to  the  human  race.  Artificial 
propagation  of  birds,  of  land  animals,  of  plants,  especially 
the  cereals,  began  so  early  that  we  do  not  know  the  natural 
sources  of  most  of  them ;  even  pisciculture  was  common  in 
China  and  Japan,  and  irrigation  was  better  understood  than 
it  is  now.  Land  recuperation  also  was  practiced,  and  in 
China  systematically  carried  on  so  well  that  we  may  take 
lessons  therefrom.  In  ethics,  at  the  beginning  of  this 
epoch,  the  groundwork  of  conduct  was  established  in  the 
widespread  publication  of  the  Golden  Rule.  Confucius, 
Buddha,  Zoroaster,  Christ,  the  philosophers  of  the  West- 
ern nations,  had  breathed  upon  them  or  into  them  this 
benign  lesson.  To  do  unto  others  as  one  would  have 

*  Ruins,  etc.,  Philadelphia,  1799,  Lyon. 


The  Land  Problem.  125 

them  to  do  unto  him  was  the  pearl  in  the  crown  of  this 
period. 

In  our  day,  the  eighth  period,  the  age  of  coal,  the  age 
of  domestication,  the  tenure  of  the  earth  is  no  longer  feudal, 
but  individual  or  technic.  If  every  man  has  not  his  vine 
and  fig  tree,  at  least  every  vine  and  fig  tree  has  its  owner  or 
owners.  The  earth  has  undergone  a  political,  national, 
social,  and  individual  gerrymandering  to  adjust  it  to  the  new 
carbon-wasting  period,  the  age  of  machinery.  The  waste  of 
the  nineteenth  century  has  equaled  that  of  all  other  cent- 
uries. The  census  reports  the  value  of  minerals  consumed 
in  the  United  States  in  1890  at  $600,000,000  (David  T. 
Day).  The  waste  of  forests  and  consequent  disturbance  of 
other  natural  phenomena  has  called  for  legislation  in  every 
civilized  state.  Practically,  our  waters  have  been  cleared  of 
their  natural  supply  of  fishes,  and  game  is  almost  a  thing  of 
the  past. 

The  air  is  no  longer  in  our  cities  a  mixture  of  oxygen 
and  nitrogen,  but  a  sewer  into  which  is  poured  the  waste  of 
industries.  Our  old  fields  in  the  South  turn  more  fertility 
into  the  rivers  than  the  whole  production  amounts  to.  The 
disturbance  of  the  equilibrium  of  insect  life  has  depopu- 
lated vast  areas  and  more  than  once  presaged  famine.  The 
filling  up  of  rivers  and  harbors  has  made  the  borders  of  these 
streams  uninhabitable  by  reason  of  malaria,  and  silted  up 
their  mouths  so  that  already  we  have  hundreds  of  ruined 
towns  within  the  borders  of  this  youngest  nation,  and  at 
least  one  State — Nevada.  The  waste  of  the  soil  has  been 
accompanied  by  the  disappearance  of  scarce  and  precious 
materials  that  have,  for  example,  moved  the  wheat-belt  from 
New  York  to  the  State  of  Washington. 

At  the  same  time  the  recuperation  and  evolution  of  new 
sources  of  supply  have  gone  faster,  and  we  do  not  care  for 
wild  harvest-fields.  For  the  first  time  in  history  our  century 
has  been  asking  the  earth,  What  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ? 
and  what  is  the  best  that  thou  canst  do?  In  the  use  of 
drainage  and  terracing,  of  transplanting  and  selecting  out 
weak  plants,  of  utilizing  manures  and  sewage  and  other 
waste,  of  saving  the  sun-heat  by  glass  and  fermentation,  of 
artificial  heat,  of  irrigation,  we  have  been  able  to  obtain 
from  six  to  ten  crops  a  year  from  the  soil.  "  In  the  hands 
of  men  there  are  no  infertile  soils.  The  most  productive 
soils  are  not  in  the  prairies  of  America,  nor  in  the  Russian 
steppes ;  they  are  in  the  peat  bogs  of  Ireland,  on  the  sand 


126  The  Land  Problem. 

downs  of  the  northern  coast,  on  the  craggy  mountains  of  the 
Rhine,  where  they  have  been  made  by  man's  hands."  * 

In  this  good  work  of  elaborating  and  recuperating  the 
earth  we  still  have  found  no  way  to  bring  back  the  coal  and 
metals  we  are  wasting  at  such  a  fearful  rate ;  but  the  pre- 
cious nitrogen  may  be  economized  and  restored  by  using 
less  meat  and  calling  in  more  of  the  product  of  the  sea. 
The  chemical  processes  by  which  potash  and  nitrogen  may 
be  got  in  available  form  for  plant  life  are  now  being  in- 
volved to  produce  by  synthesis  our  most  desirable  food  ele- 
ments, without  the  long  process  of  vegetation.  By  legisla- 
tion the  contamination  of  the  atmosphere  is  restricted  and 
poisoning  of  waters  prevented.  Immense  sums  of  money 
are  by  government  expended  in  experiment  stations  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  the  most  product  for  the  least  outlay, 
and  of  controlling  insect  life  for  the  good  of  man.  This  is 
a  kind  of  co-operative  altruism  in  which  all  are  taxed  for 
the  benefit  of  the  land- worker. 

Now,  what  will  this  period  add  to  the  ethics  of  the  land 
problem,  and  thereby  to  the  advancement  of  society  ?  What 
ought  it  to  do  for  tenure,  for  waste,  for  recuperation,  for 
elaboration,  for  conduct  ? 

1.  It  should  profit  by  all  the  past,  borrow  its  excellences, 
but  not  return  to  it.      I  therefore  modestly  suggest  that 
communism  and  all  other  forms  of  the  clan  system  in  legis- 
lation concerning  the  relationship  of  society  to  the  globe  are 
retrogression. 

2.  Forms  of  tenure  are  really  not  so  important  as  modes 
of  treatment.    That  form  of  tenure  which  leads  men  to  pre- 
vent waste,  to  repair  past  damage,  to  domesticate  and  de- 
velop Nature's  resources,  to  cherish  benevolent  feelings  and 
a  profound  interest  in  posterity  through  the  land,  is  best. 
But  I  am  trying  to  enforce  the  idea  that,  after  all,  the 
earth  is  the  landlord  and  that  we  are  the  tenants. 

3.  The  capacity  of  the  earth  is  ample,  and  its  resources 
abundant  for  all  time,  if  she  be  interrogated  in  a  true  spirit. 
More  instruction  and  a  refinement  of  conscience  will  point 
the  way. 

4.  It  can  glorify  and  magnify  the  Golden  Rule  by  the 
scientific  study  of  what  we  ought  to  desire  others  to  do  for 
and  unto  us  and  unto  themselves,  and  unto  this  royal  heri- 
tage.    Then  it  can  magnify  the  doing  unto  others.     The 

*  Prince  Krapotkin,  quoted  by  A.  D.  Atwater,  Cent.  Mag.,  Nov.,  1891, 105  and 
elsewhere. 


The  Land  Problem.  127 

golden  rule,  the  highest  altruism,  will  be  doing  the  very 
best  to  others  that  can  be  done,  or  that  with  all  possible 
light  others  could  dream  of  doing  for  our  highest  and 
noblest  good.  The  life  and  death  of  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity taught  mankind  that  our  own  highest  happiness  lies 
in  this  most  exalted  consecration  to  others.  "  Love  and 
serve,"  on  the  monument  of  Shaftesbury,  "  more  sweetness 
and  more  light,"  on  the  lips  of  Matthew  Arnold,  are  our 
watchwords.  The  Golden  Rule  has  had  and  will  have  its 
own  evolution. 

In  reply  to  one  question  propounded  by  your  committee — 
"  How  can  the  capacity  of  the  land  for  production  be  main- 
tained in  correspondence  with  the  increase  of  population  ?  " — 
the  answer  is  easy  after  what  has  been  said.  By  the  im- 
provement of  land  ethics,  by  the  bettering  of  conduct  to- 
ward the  earth,  by  domesticating  the  powers  of  Nature.  If 
the  question  were  propounded  to  any  young  clerk  in  Brook- 
lyn: How  do  you  expect  to  rise  in  your  employer's  favor? 
he  would  reply  :  By  studying  how  to  make  him  richer  and 
more  able  to  raise  my  salary.  The  capacity  of  amassing 
fortunes  through  the  fidelity  of  employes  is  no  more  un- 
limited than  the  capacity  of  the  earth  to  develop  new  re- 
sources of  human  happiness. 

RELATION  OF  CLASSES  OF  SOCIETY  TO  THE  LAND. 

It  is  not  the  farmer  alone  who  is  profoundly  interested  in 
the  treatment  of  the  earth,  the  air,  and  the  waters.  Every 
man,  woman,  and  child  is  interested,  for  the  sake  of  knowl- 
edge, for  the  sake  of  health  and  long  life,  for  our  own  sake, 
for  the  sake  of  every  human  being  present  and  to  come. 
As  all  parts  of  the  earth  are  united,  as  all  human  society 
has  its  international  laws,  so  men  are  all  bound  to  the  earth, 
and  no  man  can  defile  or  waste  it  without  striking  every 
other  man  that  shall  ever  stand  upon  it. 

THE  QUESTION  OF  PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  OWNERSHIP. 

In  the  lowest  savagery  land  ownership  is  communal, 
in  barbarism  it  is  feudal,  in  civilization  it  is  individual. 
K thirdly,  that  system  is  right  which  encourages  and  effects 
the  least  waste,  the  greatest  recuperation,  and  the  most  suc- 
cessful familiarity  with  and  control  over  Nature's  concealed 
possibilities.  As  I  have  said,  forms  of  tenure  are  not  so 


128  The  Land  Problem. 

important  as  mode  of  treatment.  If  men  are  worthy  to 
enjoy  individual  tenure  they  should  have  it.  It  is  the 
highest  good.  When  they  abuse  it  they  get  in  debt  to  the 
rich,  who  reduce  them  to  feudalism ;  and  if  the  rich  should 
move  away,  a  kind  of  clan  system  or  communism  would 
ensue. 

TAXATION  OF  LAND  VALUES. 

In  the  first  period  the  percentage  of  taxation  was  high- 
est ;  in  our  eighth  period  it  is  lowest.  The  form  of  law 
that  does  not  decrease  the  amount  of  taxation  proportion- 
ally to  the  yield  per  acre  is  not  in  the  line  of  progress ; 
therefore  the  true  principle  of  the  taxation  of  land  will  lie  in 
the  way  of  reward  ;  as  the  productive  value  of  the  land  is  in- 
creased, the  rate  of  taxation  will  be  decreased.  I  am  speak- 
ing now  of  intrinsic  values.  Extrinsic  values,  created  by 
the  public,  belong  to  the  public  and  they  may  tax  them  as 
they  will.  But  any  law  that  punishes  a  man  with  taxation 
for  preventing  waste,  recuperating  worn  acres  or  developing 
the  latent  resources  of  Nature,  is  wicked. 

THE  LAND  WORKER  COMPARED  WITH  OTHER  WORKERS. 

Every  tool  and  industry  and  implement  of  man  has  had 
its  evolution.  The  wood  worker,  the  metal  worker,  the 
navigator,  the  land  tiller,  has  had  his  inventive  genius  taxed 
to  the  utmost,  and  so  you  behold  one  with  stone  saw  or 
planing  mill,  another  with  stone  hammer  or  trip  hammer, 
a  third  with  "  bull  boat "  or  ocean  steamer,  the  fourth  with 
bone  hoe  or  steam  plow.  True  ethics  demands  for  the 
one  what  we  give  to  the  other — reward  to  the  progressive, 
starvation  to  the  retrogressive.  If  we  never  think  of  legis- 
lating to  persuade  men  to  prefer  the  old  spindle  to  the  spin- 
ning jenny,  there  ought  to  be  no  help  for  the  man  who 
looks  back  to  the  good  old  days  of  the  digging  stick  and  the 
land  wasting. 

EELATIVE  EARNINGS  AND  HOURS. 

In  agriculture,  as  in  all  industries,  work  or  momentum  is 
equal  to  time  multiplied  by  rate  and  weight  or  units  of 
power.  The  farmer  who  insists  on  following  cow-paths 
with  public  roads  and  in  doing  all  his  work  regardless  of 
velocity,  must  expect  to  find  himself  often  on  the  road 


The  Land  Problem.  129 

after  dark.  In  savagery  a  moon,  in  barbarism  a  day,  in  the 
iron  age  an  hour,  in  the  age  of  coal  a  minute,  is  the  unit  of 
time.  Thooe  who  work  to  the  minute  have  short  days ; 
those  who  do  not  care  for  an  hour  will  continue  to  work 
long  days.  It  is  not  legislation  that  such  people  need,  but 
education  and  moral  teaching. 

Tariff,  in  this  view,  paid  on  foreign  luxuries  by  the  con- 
sumer for  the  support  of  the  Government,  is  an  easy  way  to 
raise  revenues  and  does  not  interfere  with  the  ends  here 
laid  down.  Tariff  for  the  encouragement  of  an  industry  is 
an  experiment  or  a  patent  and  should  be  limited  in  time. 
If  it  bring  honest  people  and  skill  and  consumers  and 
diversified  industries  to  our  doors,  then  the  experiment  has 
succeeded ;  if  it  impoverish  the  whole  merely  to  create  a 
monopoly,  then  it  belongs  to  the  middle  ages  and  should  be 
abandoned. 

THE  OUTLOOK. 

Consider  for  one  moment  the  first  human  family  as 
they  stood  millenniums  ago  in  front  of  their  cave-dwell- 
ing, without  clothing  or  furniture  of  any  kind ;  chips  of 
stone  and  fragments  of  bone  or  horn  or  wood  were  their 
only  appliances.  They  were  without  experience.  The 
simplest  tools — such  as  hammers,  saws,  gimlets,  planes, 
adzes — were  unknown  to  them.  No  one  had  dreamed  of 
the  mechanical  powers,  except  the  inclined  plane.  The 
wedge,  the  roller,  the  wheel,  the  wheel  and  axle,  the  pulley 
and  the  screw,  were  far,  far  in  the  future.  No  commerce  ex- 
isted but  the  simplest  barter,  and  all  transportation  was  on 
human  beasts  of  burden.  This  naked  creature  seemed  also 
poorly  provided  physically  for  the  common  struggle.  With- 
out a  hairy  covering,  having  feeble  jaws  and  nails,  his  agil- 
ity in  climbing  lost  without  corresponding  addition  of  fleet- 
ness  of  foot,  he  will,  apparently,  be  outwitted  and  devoured 
in  the  next  generation  by  the  combination  of  his  enemies. 

But  when  we  consider  that  this  same  creature  has  at  last 
come  to  master  the  whole  earth  by  exploration  and  by  ac- 
quaintance with  its  laws  and  activities,  has  acquainted  him- 
self with  the  weight  and  motion  and  composition  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  has  projected  his  imagination  into  systems 
beyond  all  these  and  out  of  sight,  dreams  of  infinite  time 
and  space  and  motion  and  creates  conditions  of  things  in 
his  fancy  that  can  have  no  possible  existence  in  fact,  and 
finally  expects  for  himself  an  unlimited  existence  in  a  spir- 


130  The  Land  Problem. 

itual  sphere  transcending  all  that  his  present  life  can  ex- 
perience or  hope  for,  we  are  prepared  to  believe  that  the 
chances  for  his  success  must  have  immensely  outweighed 
those  for  his  destruction.  No  other  creature  has  so  pro- 
gressed ;  the  whole  animal  kingdom  has  not  traveled  so  far 
upward  from  the  nomad  to  the  anthropoid. 

Now,  if  all  this  splendid  progress  was  made  under  the 
old  feral  system  of  bad  tenure,  waste,  absence  of  recupera- 
tion, and  little  elaboration  of  latent  resources,  what  do  you 
think  will  be  the  pace  under  the  new  regime  of  culture  and 
higher  ethic  ?  The  earth  is  no  longer  able  to  support  its 
human  population  as  grazers,  as  hunters,  as  fishers,  as  no- 
mads. But  the  ingenious  mind  of  man  will  devote  its  ener- 
gies henceforth  to  the  new  culture,  and  literally  make  the 
desert  blossom  like  the  rose.* 

*  In  the  preparation  of  this  paper  I  have  consulted  men  rather  than  books.  I 
shall  always  have  a  filial  affection  for  Marsh's  Man  and  Nature  ;  Guyot's  Earth 
and  Man  ;  Hitter's  geographic  publications  ;  Maury's  Physical  Geography  of 
the  Sea ;  Humboldt's  Kosmos  ;  Klemm's  Culturgeschichte  des  Menschen,  and 
a  few  others  of  the  older  anthropogeographers.  My  present  obligation  is 
here  expressed  to  Dr  David  T.  Day,  of  the  Census  Office,  for  information 
concerning  the  output  and  waste  of  coal  and  metals  ;  to  Prof.  F.  W.  Clarke, 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  for  assistance  in  the  study  of  man's 
share  in  the  irremediable  dissipation  of  physical  and  chemical  energy ;  to 
Prof.  Wiley,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  for  the  outlook  along  the  line  of 
recuperating  the  precious  elements  of  plant  production  in  the  worn-out  lands  ; 
to  Prof  Fernow,  of  the  same  Department,  for  accurate  knowledge  concerning 
the  forestry  problem  as  it  now  stands;  to  Colonel  Marshall  McDonald,  Commis- 
sioner of  Fish  and  Fisheries,  for  information  concerning  the  destruction  of  the 
natural  fish  supply  and  the  immense  advantage  gained  by  saving  our  waste  over 
the  vast  pasture  lands  of  coastal  waters;  to  Prof.  Cleveland  Abbe  and  the 
Weather  Bureau  for  help  in  studying  the  nature  of  atmospheric  contamination 
and  the  line  of  its  true  remedies;  to  Prof.  W  J  McGee,  of  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey,  for  permission  to  examine  and  quote  from  his  unpublished  manu- 
script concerning  the  Southern  Old  Fields;  to  Prof.  C.  V.  Riley,  for  many  conver- 
sations respecting  the  myriad  relationships  existing  between  human  happiness  or 
misery  and  the  insect  world ;  to  the  Coast  Survey  and  Hydrographic  Office  for 
the  privilege  of  examining  their  series  of  charts  with  reference  to  the  silting  up 
of  harbors;  to  Prof.  G.  L.  Goodale,  whose  studies  on  the  useful  plants  of  the  fu- 
ture are  exactly  in  the  line  of  the  present  paper.  (American  Journal  of  Science, 
vol.  xlii,  October,  1891.)  I  have  been  much  interested  also  in  a  work  by  Colonel 
C.  C.  Jones,  entitled  The  Lost  Towns  of  Georgia,  and  various  statements  in  cur- 
rent literature  about  the  decline  of  agriculture  in  many  of  our  older  States. 


The  Land  Problem.  131 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  JAMES  A.  SKILTON: 

"While  we  are  laying  foundations,  beginning  work  in  our  field  some- 
what on  the  lines  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  waiting  for  our 
Smithson  to  appear,  it  is  a  pleasant  coincidence  that  we  have  with  us 
and  helping  us  one  of  the  prominent  workers  in  connection  with  that 
institution. 

Prof.  Mason  has,  no  doubt  intentionally,  left  open  for  further  dis- 
cussion the  economic  and  political  implications  and  applications  of 
the  land  problem,  to  which  it  is  our  plan  for  this  season  to  pay  special 
attention. 

If  it  be  true,  as  Tyndall  says,  that  the  promise  and  potency  of  every 
form  and  quality  of  life  may  be  discerned  in  matter,  then  we  may  con- 
clude that  the  promise  and  potency  of  a  proper  system  of  the  conduct 
of  life  may  also  be  discerned  in  matter,  and  probably  was  discernible, 
had  a  discerner  been  present,  even  in  the  nebular  age.  Consequently, 
coming  down  to  our  own  time  and  the  subject  of  the  evening — land, 
whether  in  its  narrow  or  in  its  broader  definition — we  may  expect 
to  find  that  there  is  at  least  the  beginning  of  a  system  of  morals  inte- 
grated with  matter  and  with  the  physical,  chemical,  and  vital  laws 
concerned  in  the  action  and  use  of  land. 

Borrowing  the  words  of  Dr.  Janes  in  the  Popular  Science  notice  of 
Justice,  recently  published :  "  Mr.  Spencer  shows  that  we  must  seek 
for  the  germs  of  morality  in  the  animal  world.  He  even  goes  further, 
and  shows  that  human  morality  is  based  upon  laws  which  are  as 
universal  as  life  itself,  and  are  active  and  potent  in  the  development  of 
all  living  things."  To  which  I  add  that  morality  and  justice  are  condi- 
tioned in  and  by  the  laws  that  were  already  at  work  at  the  time  when 
life  was  mere  potency  and  promise,  and  have  therefore  become  framed 
into  the  very  structure  of  the  earth,  and  that  in  a  very  complete  and 
important  sense  morality  and  justice  are  based  upon  laws  which  are 
as  universal  as  the  physical  universe  and  to  which  biological  princi- 
ples and  action  are  subordinate.  If  this  be  true,  then  human  justice  is 
not  simply  a  development  of  "  subhuman  "  justice,  as  limited  to  the 
biological  field,  but  also  of  subanimal  justice,  including  justice  to  and  in 
land,  the  approximate  source  and  store-house  of  all  life  materials  and 
forces ;  which  is  the  beginning  of  all  right-eousness. 

Indeed,  a  mere  cursory  glance  at  the  history  of  nations  arouses  suspi- 


132  The  Land  Problem. 

cion  that  land  requires  not  only  that  justice  shall  be  done  to  it  by  man, 
but  that  it  finds  a  way  of  punishing  him  if  that  justice  be  withheld. 

The  ancient  boast  was  that  all  roads  led  to  Rome ;  which  meant, 
in  part  at  least,  that  the  land  products  of  the  then  known  world  stead- 
ily moved  toward  Rome.  The  inevitable  result  of  this  movement  was 
that  eventually  the  outlying  lands  grew  continually  poorer  and  less 
able  to  produce,  while  the  lands  at  the  center  of  the  movement — about 
Rome — became  congested  with  the  elements  of  fertility,  the  outlying 
lands  approaching  the  condition  of  wilderness  or  desert,  and  Rome  it- 
self becoming  imbedded  in  the  pestilent  Campagna.  In  the  light  of  evo- 
lutionary science  and  philosophy,  why  need  we  to  go  further  in  search 
of  the  cause  of  the  decline  of  Rome,  the  decay  of  civilization,  the  dark 
ages,  and  all  the  remainder  of  the  terrible  story  1  And  why  do  we 
need  further  suggestion  that  injustice  to  land  eventually  caused  or 
promoted  the  degradation  of  the  intellect,  the  morals  and  the  religion 
of  Europe,  and  that  we  in  America  inherit  our  share  of  that  degrada- 
tion? 

But  the  discovery  of  America  brought  new  land  into  use,  and  in 
some  very  -large  sense  the  upward  progress  of  civilization  in  all  these 
directions  since  that  event  is  attributable  to  the  substitution  of  the 
new  lands  of  the  New  World  as  the  new  source  of  supply  in  place  of  the 
worn-out  lands  of  the  Old  World.  The  approaching  close  of  the  fourth 
century  since  that  discovery  would  seem  to  make  it  a  fit  time  for  ask- 
ing ourselves  how  we  are  treating  these  new  lands  ?  Are  we  repeating 
or  permitting  the  policy  of  Rome,  and  slowly  but  surely  earning  the 
same  result  I  Are  we  doing  justice  to  the  land  f  Are  we  maintaining 
its  fertility  by  returning  to  it  the  elements  of  fertility,  or  are  we  rob- 
bing the  land  and  preparing  for  the  day  when  it  will  drive  us  or  our 
successors  out  as  Adam  and  Eve  were  driven  from  the  Garden  of 
Eden?  Unquestionably,  the  general  view  is,  that  the  land  has  no 
rights  that  any  man  is  bound  to  respect.  The  crops  it  produces  are  sent 
far  away  to  be  used ;  little  or  no  thought  is  taken  or  provision  made 
for  the  return  of  the  elements  of  food  and  other  products  of  the  land 
after  they  are  used  ;  no  man  realizes  that  what  he  properly  purchases 
in  the  market  is  the  mere  usufruct,  and  that  unless  the  elements  of  the 
once-used  food  are  returned  to  the  land,  he  is  participating  in  a  gigantic 
system  of  waste  that  would  be  actionable  as  such  if  practiced  by  his 
tenant  upon  his  land. 

Taking  a  larger  view,  we  discover  that  the  new  age  has  a  new  Rome 
in  London,  to  which  all  modern  roads  lead,  whether  on  land  or  sea ; 
where  practically  the  price  of  the  productions  of  the  land  of  the  whole 
earth  are  fixed,  and  in  which  are  intrenched  a  nation,  a  commerce,  a 
banking  and  an  economic  system,  and  all  the  paraphernalia  for  their 


The  Land  Problem.  133 

maintenance,  which,  taken  together,  are  more  effective  than  ever  the 
legions  of  Rome  could  dream  of  being  in  directing  the  steady  streams 
of  products  of  the  world  toward  one  common  center,  and  in  bringing 
again  upon  the  world  the  same  dire  consequences.  Furthermore,  we 
find  at  work  everywhere  the  inventive  energies  of  an  inventive  age,  by 
steamship,  railroad,  and  canal,  by  improved  agricultural  implements  of 
all  kinds,  by  telegraphic,  telephonic,  and  improved  postal  means  of  com- 
munication with  the  whole  world,  and  by  the  aid  of  machinery  set  in 
motion  by  steam  and  electricity,  assisting  so  effectually  that,  whereas 
it  took  Rome  centuries  to  do  its  destructive  work,  the  world  may  now 
be  once  more  looted  in  a  few  short  decades.  And  Africa  even  having 
now  fallen  into  the  clutches  of  this  globe  octopus,  we  may  well  weep 
to  learn  that  there  are  no  more  new  worlds,  not  for  our  conquering, 
but  for  the  resupply  and  relief  of  mankind,  when  all  the  accessible  out- 
lying lands  have  been  reduced  to  wilderness  or  desert. 

At  this  point  I  ask  permission  for  a  digression.  There  are  those  in 
this  audience  doubtless,  perhaps  members  of  the  association,  who  have 
already  answered  what  I  have  said  as  well  as  what  I  have  yet  to  say, 
by  the  easy  assumption  that  the  elements  thus  taken  from  the  soil  will 
somehow  be  returned  thereto  through  the  air,  'on  the  wings  of  gases, 
and  that  in  that  way  the  circuit  will  be  completed  through  which  due 
conservation  of  energy  will  take  place,  and  that  the  land,  mankind,  and 
civilization  will  not  suffer.  To  such,  and  to  those  who  think  that  a 
change  of  crops  will  do  the  business,  that  the  "  modern  improvements  " 
through  which  the  sewage  and  waste  of  every  house  and  of  the  streets 
of  all  the  cities  of  the  civilized  world  are  constantly  thrown  into  the 
river,  and  thence  flow  into  the  sea,  never  to  return  to  the  land  until  in 
some  far-off  geologic  age  the  continent  is  again  dipped  in  the  sea,  are 
improvements :  and  who  think  that  conduits  leading  direct  from  this 
mass  of  filth  and  infection  into  their  sleeping  and  sitting  rooms  are  the 
perfection  of  modern  science  and  engineering — to  such  it  is  pretty  cer- 
tain I  have  no  message. 

For  those  who,  discussing  the  means  of  maintaining  land  fertility 
in  parlors  and  clubs,  suggest  the  change  of  crop  theory,  I  have  the 
suggestion  to  make  that  when  they  can  show  me  a  practical  working 
scheme  for  keeping  their  bank  accounts  in  a  satisfactory  condition  by 
merely  changing  the  color  of  their  checks  and  without  making  depos- 
its, then  I  shall  be  ready  to  consider  schemes  for  maintaining  the  fer- 
tility of  land  by  changing  the  kind  of  plant  life  by  which  the  soil  is 
each  year  drawn  upon  and  exhausted. 

But  it  is  my  purpose  to  bring  the  proposition  that  soil  exhaustion 
means  barbarization  to  the  people  and  nation  that  permit  it  to  the 
test  of  fact  and  history. 


134  The  Land  Problem. 

Time  limitations  compel  me  to  confine  my  remarks  in  the  main  to 
an  application  of  the  principle  I  have  laid  down  in  the  study  of  a 
phase  of  near-by  American  history. 

About  one  hundred  years  ago  selfishness,  which  had  from  the  be- 
ginning largely  governed  the  human  and  subhuman  world,  was  re- 
duced to  at  least  the  beginning  of  a  science  in  the  writings  of  Smith, 
.Eicardo,  and  Malthus.  Almost  simultaneously  the  United  States  be- 
came a  nation,  the  foundation  principle  of  which  was  political  free- 
dom— if  not  the  right  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness, 
which  later  became  disputed.  For  nearly  one  hundred  years  now  we 
have  had  the  application  of  the  economic  science  of  selfishness  in  the 
affairs  of  a  people  whose  leading  political  principle  was  largely  altru- 
istic, and  therefore  the  history  of  our  country  will  furnish  a  favorable, 
or  at  least  a  not  unfavorable,  object  lesson  for  the  study  of  the  effects 
of  the  application  of  that  science. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  after,  the  people  and  the  leaders 
of  the  Southern  States  were  as  stanch  believers  in  and  supporters  of 
freedom  as  those  of  the  Northern  States.  The  writer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  a  Virginian ;  the  Mecklenburg  resolutions,* 
which  are  said  to  have  antedated,  and  furriished  its  pattern  or  outline, 
were  framed  and  adopted  by  citizens  of  North  Carolina ;  and,  long 
before  this,  leading  citizens  of  Georgia  had  strongly  protested  against 
the  introduction  of  slavery  into  that  colony.  Tobacco  was  the  great 
exporting  crop  of  the  South,  and  its  effects  on  the  soil  are  well  known. 
The  characteristic  South  had  and  has  no  perennial  grass  or  hay  crop. 
Wheat,  rye,  oats,  and  corn  did  not  and  do  not  either  grow  well  or 
produce  large  crops  there.  Then,  as  now,  no  shipping  interest  of  its 
own  of  any  magnitude  existed  there.  In  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
they  raised  and  produced  rice  and  indigo,  which  were  the  resources 
through  which  money  was  mostly  obtained ;  but  the  people  lived  con- 
tented in  the  main  with  yams,  sweet  potatoes,  and  corn  for  food,  and 
were  true  as  steel  to  the  cause  of  independence.  The  businesses  of  ex- 
portation and  soil  destruction  were  then  in  their  infancy. 

When  the  time  came  to  adopt  a  constitution  the  representatives  of 
the  Southern  States  refused  to  consent  unless  the  Constitution  was  so 
framed  that  no  export  duty  could  be  imposed  and  no  interference 
made  with  the  export  trade  of  the  Southern  and  other  export  States. 
The  no  export  duty  clause  was  presented  and  insisted  upon  as  neces- 
sary to  the  protection  of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States.  Over  the 

*  The  so-called  "  Mecklenburg  Declaration  "  of  May  20,  1775,  has  been  shown 
to  be  spurious.  It  was  first  made  pTiblic  in  the  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  Register,  of  April 
30,  1819.  The  North  Carolina  resolutions  of  May  31,  1775,  the  genuineness  of 
which  is  not  questioned,  bear  little  resemblance  to  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence.—Ed. 


The  Land  Problem.  135 

strong  protests  of  Washington  and  Madison  this  limitation  of  the 
powers  of  the  nation  was  accepted  and  adopted  in  the  Constitution 
by  a  bare  majority.  The  votes  of  members  from  the  commercial  and 
shipping  States  of  the  North  made  that  majority.  The  change  of  one 
vote  by  Mason,  Randolph,  or  Blair,  of  Virginia,  would  have  fixed  the 
power  of  levying  an  export  duty  in  the  Constitution. 

Presently  the  cotton  and  later  the  sugar  crop  began  to  be  added  to 
the  tobacco  crop  as  great  crops  of  the  South,  all  of  them  export  crops, 
cotton  and  tobacco  particularly  exhausting  and  destructive  to  the  soil, 
and  rice  and  sugar  requiring  soil  renewed  by  overflow  like  the  product- 
ive lands  of  Egypt,  but  continued  as  crops  under  many  limitations — 
as  unhealthiness,  strong  competition  in  the  tropics,  small  production 
because  these  crops  were  not  perfectly  suited  to  the  soil  and  climate, 
and  the  difficulty  of  getting  free  men  to  work  them.  Then  came  the 
invention  of  the  cotton-gin,  followed  by  the  increase  and  supremacy  of 
the  cotton  crop  as  a  Southern  and  an  export  crop,  and  by  many  other 
consequences. 

In  the  discussions  of  the  last  fifty  years  in  regard  to  slavery  the 
cotton-gin  has  always  been  cited  as  accounting  for  the  failure  of  the 
hopes  and  beliefs  of  the  fathers  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  that  slavery  would  die  out  by  natural  processes.  So  far 
as  I  know,  the  explanation  has  always  stopped  with  that  citation. 
But  how  could  the  cotton-gin  strengthen  slavery  and  weaken  freedom  ? 

I  answer,  by  the  effects  it  produced  in  helping  soil  exhaustion  and 
barbarization ;  through  increased  exportation  of  cotton  and  its  barbar- 
izing effects  on  the  soil,  the  commerce,  and  the  people  of  the  South. 
Standing  alone,  the  mere  citation  throws  the  discussion  into  the  arena 
of  economics.  In  the  Northern  States  slavery  died  a  natural  death, 
as  it  was  expected  to  do  throughout  the  country.  The  cotton-gin, 
though  invented  by  a  Northerner  and  manufactured  in  the  North,  did 
not  save  slavery  there.  The  results  observed  were  therefore  due  some- 
how to  the  effects  of  its  use  in  and  upon  the  Southern  States,  land  and 
people. 

To  one  visiting  the  South  for  the  first  time  nearly  forty  years  ago, 
after  having  become  familiar  with  the  reckless  expenditure  of  typical 
Southern  planters  at  Saratoga,  and  with  their  constant  boasts  that 
they  were  the  favored  people  of  the  earth,  because  they  produced  its 
great  export  crops  and  brought  all  the  foreign  money  into  the  country, 
which  crops  the  world  must  have  or  perish,  it  was  a  profound  surprise 
to  discover  that  these  same  planters,  many  of  them,  when  at  home, 
lived  in  poorly  built  wooden  houses,  supported  a  few  feet  above  the 
ground  on  wooden  blocks ;  that  these  houses  were  most  generally  built 
like  the  old  log-houses  of  the  North  a  century  or  two  ago,  only  the 
10 


136  The  Land  Problem. 

logs  were  mere  poles  poorly  put  together,  with  the  cracks  between 
sometimes  plastered  with  mud,  sometimes  left  open ;  the  floor-boards 
in  many  cases  placed  an  inch  apart  at  the  edges  for  convenience  in 
sweeping;  the  chimney  built  of  sticks  split  from  short  and  small 
pieces  of  pine  and  plastered  with  mud ;  the  windows  unprovided  with 
glass  and  closable  only  by  a  solid  rough  pine  blind  or  door ;  the  fur- 
niture of  the  house  to  the  last  degree  simple  and  rough,  except,  per- 
haps, as  to  a  three-  or  four-hundred-dollar  piano  imported  from  the 
North.  Looking  further,  everything  else  about  the  plantation  was 
found  to  be  of  the  same  order ;  the  adjacent  villages  and  cities,  except 
possibly  a  half-dozen  of  the  last,  were  mere  travesties  of  the  names, 
and  all  of  the  latter  were  singular,  shrunken,  and  inferior,  considering 
their  ages  and  their  positions  as  centers  of  Southern  commerce.*  Ex- 
tending observation  to  the  people  themselves,  they  appeared  to  be 
suited  to  and  satisfied  with  their  surroundings,  not  only,  but  were,  with 
rare  exceptions,  to  the  extreme  provincially  boastful  of  the  superiority 
of  their  civilization  over  all  others.  The  chief  occupations  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  young  men  in  every  community  seemed  to  consist  in 
carrying  around  large  pistols  and  knives,  which  they  used  with  cheer- 
ful frequency  upon  the  persons  of  their  friends  and  associates.  The 
grocery  at  the  cross-roads  was  their  club-house,  and  chasing  negro 
girls  at  night  their  real  business. 

Almost  no  lawyer,  doctor,  minister,  or  even  teacher,  supported  him- 
self and  family  on  his  professional  income,  but  always  added  planting, 
there  being  practically  no  other  reliable  source  of  income  known  in 
the  country. 

As  to  dress,  the  men  of  the  South  bought  expensive  clothes,  but,  as 
a  tailor  once  sadly  remarked  to  me,  "  they  never  know  how  to  put 
them  on."  Now  and  again  you  would  meet  a  man  with  frills  for  his 
shirt  bosom,  and  on  his  shirt  sleeves  in  the  place  of  cuffs,  and  there 
would  be  about  him  an  air  as  if,  could  you  but  make  a  full  examina- 
tion, there  would  be  a  disclosure  of  frilled  pantalets  somewhere,  in  a 
more  or  less  rudimentary  form,  in  this  respect  showing  the  only  partly 
aborted  garments  of  the  cavalier  from  whom  he  claimed  descent,  like 
the  partly  discarded  toes  in  Prof.  Huxley's  and  Prof.  Marsh's  fossil 
horse.  At  the  same  time  it  was  easy  to  detect  many  noble  and  engag- 
ing traits  of  character  inherited  from  the  same  cavalier  source. 

Looking  into  the  conditions  of  land  titles,  it  then  appeared  that 
there  was  a  carelessness  about  them  indicating  an  approach  toward 
treating  land  as  personal  property,  the  sufficient  title  to  which  lay  in 


began  to  be  settled,  we  already  have  a  considerable  book  on  library  shelves  en- 
titled The  Lost  Towns  of  Georgia. 


The  Land  Problem.  137 

possession,  while  negro  property  was  much  more  carefully  guarded  as 
to  title,  as  if  slaves  were  the  real  property  of  the  country.  And  look- 
ing into  actual  land  conditions,  it  appeared  that  almost  all  the  land 
occupied  in  the  early  settlement  of  the  country  had  long  since  been 
abandoned  to  wilderness  and  grown  up  to  forest,  and  that  successive 
sections  occupied  subsequent  to  the  Revolution  had  been  robbed  of 
their  capacity  for  production  and  abandoned  as  worthless,  new  lands 
being  ever  the  resort,  and  no  effort  at  keeping  up  fertility  being  either 
attempted  or  possible.  In  fact,  the  whole  country,  so  far  as  devoted  to 
the  chief  staple  of  the  South — cotton — seemed  destined  to  undergo  this 
change,  and  be  eventually  relegated  to  wilderness,  and  the  people 
either  to  emigration,  barbarism,  or  extinction. 

Out  of  this  chronic  status  of  decline  and  decay  came  the  necessary 
consequences  of  want  of  employment,  and  of  any  and  all  opportunity 
for  either  a  career,  or  even  a  meager  support,  for  the  young  men  who 
had  not  and  could  not  come  into  possession  of  slaves.  There  was  liter- 
ally nothing  for  the  large  majority  of  them  to  do  except  to  engage  in 
fortune-hunting  or  filibustering.  The  former  was,  we  may  advisedly 
say,  reduced  to  a  science,  for  intending  lovers  first  sought  the  facts  of 
the  case  by  consulting  the  records  and  ascertaining  how  much  "  stock" 
the  old  man  owned  before  taking  any  steps  to  win  the  young  lady. 
And  the  young  ladies  were  not  far  behind  the  huntsmen  of  the  other ' 
sex  in  this  respect.  Between  1850  and  1860  the  numerous  filibuster- 
ing schemes  in  the  South  were  largely  due  to  this  cause  of  unrest — 
want  of  opportunity  for  a  career — as  later  it  became  the  actual  cause 
of  the  rebellion  and  of  all  that  the  rebellion  implies. 

Next  let  me  say  that  the  growth  of  slavery  in  the  South,  where  its 
decay  had  been  expected  and  hoped  for  by  the  fathers,  was  due  to  the 
same  cause — the  continued  impoverishment  of  the  soil,  due  to  the  ex- 
portation of  its  annual  product  direct  from  the  plantation,  the  owner 
of  the  land  living,  in  fact,  on  his  capital,  so  far  as  it  was  invested  in 
land,  eventually  to  be  driven  out  an  exile  to  seek  new  lands  in  new 
places  or  new  States,  there,  by  the  aid  of  his  slaves,  to  repeat  the  opera- 
tion and  barely  maintain  the  low  order  of  civilization  which  was  the 
necessary  result  of  his  method  of  treating  the  land. 

The  rebellion  also  was  due,  not  to  slavery,  as  almost  universally 
supposed,  but  to  the  same  cause — land  impoverishment,  and  the  want 
of  employment  for  the  young  men  thereby  caused,  together  with  a  cer- 
tain jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  young  men  of  the  South,  which  had 
for  its  object  the  young  men  of  the  North  and  their  greatly  more  abun- 
dant opportunities. 

Property  in  the  South,  as  elsewhere,  was  conservative,  and  the  prop- 
erty of  the  South  was  in  the  hands  of  the  slave-holders.  But  when  it 


138  The  Land  Problem. 

appeared,  as  it  gradually  did  during  the  fall  of  1860  and  the  early 
months  of  1861,  that  the  young  men  of  the  better  families  of  the  South 
would  at  last  find  a  vocation  as  officers  of  the  large  army  and  navy  that 
would  be  required  to  cope  with  the  United  States  and  the  North,  re- 
sistance to  rebellion  declined  where  it  previously  controlled,  and  re- 
bellion first  became  a  possibility  and  was  eventually  accepted  as  a  boon 
and  a  solution.  In  this  new  scheme  of  a  new  nation  slaves  were  to  be 
the  workers.  This  was  the  secret  of  the  sudden  change  of  front  made 
by  Alexander  Stephens  when  he  sanctioned  the  formation  of  the  new 
government  on  the  foundation  rock  of  slavery.  I  speak  as  a  witness 
rather  than  as  a  philosopher. 

Slavery  itself  was  militant  in  type  in  the  evolutionary  sense,  and  the 
Southern  people  in  going  into  rebellion  suddenly  saw,  or  thought  they 
saw,  the  opportunity  to  complete  the  type  in  a  symmetrical  whole — the 
origin  of  it  all  being  found  in  the  treatment  of  Southern  soil  for  the 
purpose  of  sustaining  a  foreign  trade  made  free  and  possible  under  the 
clause  of  the  Constitution  that  prevents  the  levy  of  an  export  duty. 

When  we  take  up  the  race  question  in  the  South,  I  expect  to  be  able 
to  show  you  why  emancipation  and  reconstruction,  which  have  both  of 
them  ignored  the  real  causes  of  Southern  conditions,  if  my  conclusions 
are  correct,  have  not  disposed  and  can  not  dispose  of  the  Southern 
question,  but  are  destined  to  create  greater  difficulties  and  disasters 
than  those  they  were  used  to  remedy  or  we  have  yet  begun  to  imagine. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  North  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  why, 
under  the  same  Constitution  and  the  same  laws,  the  same  results  did 
not  there  occur. 

Contrasting  tobacco,  cotton,  rice,  and  sugar  of  the  South  with  North- 
ern wheat,  corn,  rye,  oats,  hay,  and  all  the  other  products  that  leave  the 
farm  substantially  in  the  original  crop  condition,  one  would  say  wealth 
was  concentrated  in  the  one  and  diffused  in  the  other,  and  the  puz- 
zling question  inevitably  arises,  Why,  then,  should  the  South  be  poor 
and  the  North  rich — the  South  unable  to  find  room  either  for  immi- 
grants or  for  its  own  children,  while  the  North  was  able  to  abandon 
vast  fields  of  labor  to  immigrants  while  the  natives  moved  up  into 
lighter  and  apparently  more  lucrative  and  desirable  occupations  I 

Further  observation  discloses,  however,  that  whereas  the  largest  of 
rich  Southern  products  were  practically  all  sent  abroad,  after  first 
taking  this  superior  richness  from  the  soil,  the  poorer  Northern  prod- 
ucts were  mostly  and  necessarily  consumed  and  used  at  home.  And 
here  we  shall  find  the  secret  of  the  whole  business.  Nature  took  care 
of  the  North  by  making  it  impossible  to  export  much  of  the  crops 
that  were  so  heavy  in  proportion  to  value,  while  it  left  the  South  to 
its  own  inventions  and  its  beautiful  theory  as  to  growing  rich  on  free 


The  Land  Problem.  139 

trade  based  on  the  no-export-duty  clause  of  the  Constitution.  In 
other  words,  the  North  can  not  plume  itself  for  its  success,  because, 
against  its  will  and  without  its  knowledge,  it  has  been  saved  by  the 
great  cost  of  transportation  of  its  heavy  products,  which,  acting  as  a 
natural  export  duty  in  the  absence  of  a  constitutional  one,  prevented 
exportation,  kept  the  products  at  home  to  be  largely  consumed  on  the 
farms  where  the  manure  would  help  maintain  and  in  some  cases  in- 
crease the  fertility  of  the  soil,  protected  the  land  owner,  and  therefore 
gave  an  increased  return  for  the  labor  bestowed  upon  the  land,  its 
products  finding  a  market  at  home  without  the  deduction  of  the  cost 
of  transportation  abroad. 

The  consequence  has  been  that,  instead  of  at  once  exporting  and  get- 
ting rid  forever  of  its  agricultural  capital  as  found  in  the  productiveness 
of  the  soil,  like  the  South,  the  North  has  been  able  to  use  it  over  and  over 
again  on  true  principles  of  conservation  of  energy,  because  each  time, 
after  doing  its  proper  work  as  food  of  men  and  animals,  the  waste  or 
manure  it  makes  has  been  restored  to  the  soil  as  so  much  saved  capi- 
tal, to  presently  be  returned  to  the  land  owner  and  worker  in  new  and 
larger  crops,  food  or  other.  To  the  somewhat  occult,  or  at  least  disre- 
garded or  unrecognized,  causes  of  its  own  prosperity,  it  is  due  in  part 
that  the  North  has  seemed  to  be  almost  afflicted  with  imbecility  or 
paralysis  in  its  conduct  toward  the  South  and  its  problems. 

In  other  words  the  North  owes  its  salvation — its  temporary  salva- 
tion— to  time,  space,  distance,  and  the  law  of  gravitation,  by  the  aid  of 
which  the  North  peacefully  emancipated  its  slaves  on  evolutionary 
principles ;  but  not  recognizing  the  source  of  its  success  in  the  moral 
implications  of  physical  law  and  matter,  it  has  been,  so  far,  unable  to 
show  the  South  how  to  solve  its  problem. 

During  the  past  sixty  years  the  progress  of  the  age  has,  however, 
produced  the  railroad  and  the  steamship,  whereby  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation and  the  time  consumed  in  reaching  market  have  been 
greatly  lessened,  thus  reducing  the  natural  export  duty,  increasing  the 
facilities  for  looting  the  continent  through  manipulations  of  a  system 
known  under  the  euphonious  title  of  foreign  commerce,  bringing  the 
North  under  the  influence  of  English  economic  theory  and  practice 
and  reducing  the  North  to  semi-Southern  conditions  as  to  land,  peo- 
ple, and  individual  character. 

To  this  general  line  of  causes  I  attribute  the  decay  of  the  farming 
interest,  East,  West,  and  in  the  Middle  States ;  the  development  of  a 
new  class  of  nabobs  and  aristocrats  recognized  as  railroad  millionaires ; 
the  gravitating  tendency  of  population  toward  cities  and  city  life;  the 
importation  of  laborers  of  an  ever-declining  mental  and  normal  status ; 
the  admitted  failure  of  republican  methods' of  government  as  applied 


140  The  Land  Problem. 

to  cities  (the  problem  with  which  our  worthy  president  will  deal  at 
our  next  meeting) ;  the  modern  dominance  of  the  saloon  in  all  branches 
of  politics ;  the  demand  for  the  increase  and  development  of  all  kinds 
of  eleemosynary  institutions ;  the  labor  agitations,  in  so  far  as  they  may 
have  a  just  foundation  in  an  unfair  distribution  of  the  compensation  of 
labor ;  the  growth  of  poverty ;  the  want  of  money  capital  in  the  South, 
West,  and  agricultural  regions  generally,  its  concentration  in  the  ex- 
porting cities  and  centers,  and  the  demand  now  being  made  the  chief 
political  question  of  the  campaign  for  a  more  equal  distribution  of  the 
money  instrument  of  exchange ;  and  also,  to  a  large  extent,  the  devel- 
opment of  disease. 

With  suggestive  variations  in  the  rapidity,  nature,  and  location  of 
development,  these  new  conditions  have  kept  pace  and  maintained 
active  relations  with  the  increase  and  cheapening  of  railroad  and  other 
transportation  facilities  at  the  North. 

Disease  is  a  subject  worthy  of  independent  treatment,  but  I  can 
only  hint  and  suggest  for  your  further  study.  With  the  decline  of 
fertility,  plant  life  is  weakened  in  vitality,  and  becomes  the  prey  of  all 
kinds  of  insect  and  germ  life,  finally  yielding  to  its  foes  and  giving 
up  the  fight.  Coincidently  and  co-ordinately,  associated  animal  and 
human  life  on  the  farm  and  in  the  city  becomes  weakened  and  afflicted 
in  similar  ways,  losing  the  power  to  cope  with  its  foes,  which  make 
their  .attacks  from  every  possible  direction  of  approach  in  the  form  of 
an  infinite  number  of  germs,  to  which  weakened  humanity  succumbs. 
Along  with  these  follow  intellectual  and  moral  decline,  the  entire 
drift  being  toward  extinction  or  non-survival  because  of  unfitness,  the 
beginning  of  which  is  injustice  to  land,  soil  exhaustion,  and  diminished 
return  for  labor.  Much  more  might  be  added  if  time  permitted,  which 
it  does  not. 

I  have  received  from  a  gentleman  (who  states  that  he  is  a  son  of  a 
founder  of  this  church  and  is  deeply  interested  in  the  solution  of  the 
problems  of  poverty)  a  courteous  letter  calling  my  attention  to  an  in- 
closed copy  of  the  "  single-tax  platform,"  and  asking  me  to  consider 
it  in  dealing  with  this  subject. 

I  could  not,  for  want  of  time,  enlarge  upon  the  scheme  of  Henry 
George  and  its  recent  modification.  Nearly  twenty  years  before  George 
wrote,  and  as  far  back  as  my  law-school  experience,  I  studied  the  fun- 
damentals of  his  system,  which,  as  he  finally  discovered,  had  often  been 
studied,  treated,  and  abandoned  before  he  was  born.  When  his  book 
appeared  I  welcomed  it,  not  because  I  found  in  it  any  solution,  or  any- 
thing new,  but  because  I  judged  that  it  would  attract  the  attention  of 
those  who  could  probably  in  no  other  way  be  aroused  to  a  study  of  the 
pressing  problems  of  the  time.  For  such  uses  I  welcome  it  still,  although 


The  Land  Problem.  141 

I  begin  to  see  the  arrogances  of  supposed  omniscience,  and  the  conse- 
quent inability  to  learn  further,  cropping  out  here  and  there  among  the 
truly  true  believers  in  George's  theories.  It  would  be,  or  seem,  discour- 
teous if  I  should  say  that  Mr.  George  impresses  me  as  if  he  had  gone  to 
sea  to  study  the  land  question  and  had  developed  a  scheme  of  the  all- 
at-sea  character.  This  form  of  criticism,  however,  expresses  my  view 
of  it  as  a  whole.  He  has  first  of  all  taken  his  case  into  the  wrong  court, 
into  the  wrong  forum.  The  proper  action  is  an  action  for  waste,  for  a 
misuse  of  the  source  of  all  production,  and  it  is  not  a  quarrel  over  the 
division  of  wealth  already  in  assured  but  wrongful  possession,  as  his 
tax  method  implies.  The  question  is  one  of  production  first  and  of 
destruction  afterward,  and  in  this  fact  lies  a  part  of  the  significance  of 
biological  principles  so  much  insisted  on  by  Mr.  Spencer. 

But  if  the  facts  I  have  assumed  to  present  are  facts,  then  the  system 
of  Mr.  George  has  a  fatal  error  in  its  proposed  remedy  of  "  perfect  free- 
dom of  trade  with  all  the  world,"  because  such  freedom  under  present 
conditions  permits  the  excessive  exportation  of  land  products,  causes 
the  exhaustion  of  the  soil,  and  inevitably  produces  poverty  and  the 
whole  Pandora-box  full  of  evils  that  follow  in  its  train. 

I  am  entirely  aware  of  the  strain  my  alleged  facts  in  regard  to  the 
South  and  the  causes  of  rebellion  will  put  on  your  opinions,  although 
my  testimony  is  the  testimony  of  a  witness  to  what  I  do  know  as 
facts.  And  let  me  say  that  I  neither  expect  nor  wish  you  to  accept 
them  without  such  further  study  as  shall  put  you  in  possession  of 
them  as  admitted  or  as  demonstrated  facts,  and  also  of  a  co-ordinated 
system  of  thought  applicable  to  the  subject. 

To  assist  you  in  the  study  let  me  state  some  other  facts  that  are 
easily  capable  of  verification.  And  first  this:  In  framing  the  Con- 
federate Constitution  the  South  abandoned  the  no-export-duty  prin- 
ciple and  gave  the  Confederate  Government  the  power  to  levy  export 
duties,  and  its  first  loan — the  so-called  cotton  loan — was  secured  by 
the  pledge  of  such  a  duty  on  cotton.  The  origin,  motive,  and  history 
of  this  clause  of  the  Confederate  Constitution  form  a  most  interest- 
ing subject  of  study  for  the  evolutionary  sociologist  and  statesman. 
Second,  under  the  influence  of  this  export  duty,  in  combination  with 
the  semi-Chinese  wall  of  the  blockade,  which  our  foreign  friends  were 
not  entirely  able  to  surmount  and  overcome,  its  nature  being  that  of  a 
prohibitive  export  duty,  manufactures  grew  and  developed  wonder- 
fully in  the  South  for  the  first  time  during  the  war,  giving  employ- 
ment to  manufacturers  and  mechanics  in  large  numbers.  Third,  these 
became  the  special  favorites  of  the  Confederacy  for  obvious  reasons, 
and  in  the  last  year  of  the  war  they  met  in  convention  at  Richmond 
and  passed  resolutions  in  which  they  undertook  to  instruct  the  plant- 


142  The  Land  Problem. 

ing  class  in  regard  to  its  duty  to  the  Government.  Thus  in  four  short 
years  the  "  greasy  mechanic  "  and  "  mudsill "  became  a  leader  in  the 
new  state  under  a  new  Constitution  that  gave  him  protection.  Ac- 
companying these  changes  of  condition  were  co-ordinate  modifications 
of  the  conditions  of  slave  labor  clearly  pointing  to  evolutionary  eman- 
cipation within  the  Confederacy.  And  fourth,  the  moment  the  Con- 
federacy was  overcome  and  the  supremacy  of  the  United  States  Con- 
stitution with  its  no-export-duty  clause  was  restored  in  the  South,  the 
manufactures  which  had  engaged  these  men  were  swept  away  like 
writing  on  a  slate  with  a  wet  sponge.  These  four  items  are  worthy  of 
complete  treatment,  which  I  can  not  here  give  them.  I  commend 
them  in  their  present  form  for  use  in  the  pipes  of  all  free-traders. 
They  will  prolong  the  smoke  materially.  And  I  further  suggest  that 
when  later  you  come  to  this  place  to  hear  free  trade,  protection,  the 
Democratic  and  Eepublican  parties,  immigration,  the  monetary  prob- 
lem, etc.,  discussed,  you  bear  them  in  mind  and  watch  the  essayists  to 
see  how  their  theories  fit  into  these  facts,  which  in  the  mean  time  you 
will  be  able  to  verify  if  necessary  or  disprove. 

The  question  naturally  occurs  whether  in  presenting  this  view  we 
have  wandered  from  the  paths  laid  out  and  guide-boarded  by  the 
Master.  He  says,  in  Justice :  "  For  the  health  of  the  social  organism 
and  the  welfare  of  its  members  a  balance  of  functions  is  requisite." 
While  he  lays  down  this  principle  in  dealing  with  the  question  of 
representation,  it  is  evident  that  it  applies  with  all  the  more  force  to 
those  activities  of  individuals  which  alone  organize  the  social  organism. 

He  also  says :  "  The  end  which  the  statesman  should  keep  in  view 
as  higher  than  all  other  ends  is  the  formation  of  character.  And  if 
there  is  entertained  a  right  conception  of  the  character  which  should 
be  formed,  and  of  the  means  by  which  it  may  be  formed,  the  exclusion 
of  multiplied  state  agencies  is  necessarily  implied."  And  in  Data  of 
Ethics  he  says  in  substance  that  egoism  without  altruism,  and  altruism 
without  egoism,  are  immoral ;  and  if  this  is  true  in  morals,  it  must  be 
all  the  more  true  in  economics  and  statesmanship.* 

*  Prof.  John  Fiske,  undoubtedly  the  American  leader  both  as  a  writer  and 
thinker  in  the  field  of  evolution,  to  whose  instructive  words  delivered  from  our 
platform  we  have  listened  with  delight  and  with  whom  we  rejoice  to  enroll  our- 
selves as  fellow-workers,  has  treated  the  critical  period  of  American  history  out 
of  which  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  evolved.  A  perusal  of  his 
book  clearly  discloses  the  fact  that  he  would  not  agree  with  the  views  here  only 
partially  expressed  and  explained.  He  eulogizes  Adam  Smith  and  The  Wealth 
of  Nations,  regrets  that  the  principles  he  therein  announced  were  not  more  fully 
carried  out  in  our  fundamental  national  law,  and  commends  the  limitations  of 
the  Constitution  in  the  matter  of  the  power  to  levy  an  export  duty  as  so  much 
gain  to  human  progress.  It  seems  to  me  he  has  not  fully  considered  the  subject 
or  applied  thereto  the  fundamental  principles  laid  down  by  Mr.  Spencer  him- 
self. As  Mr.  Buckle  amply  showed,  Adam  Smith,  in  writing  his  first  book,  A 
Theory  of  the  Moral  Sentiments,  confined  himself  to  the  sympathetic  or  altru- 
istic view,  and  in  writing  the  Wealth  of  Nations  confined  himself  to  the  egoistic 


The  Land  Problem.  143 

Soil  exhaustion  is  but  one  of  the  hydra-headed  progeny  of  unre- 
strained egoism.  The  effect  of  it  is  to  take  away  what  our  friend 
Gunton  calls  'opportunity,"  and  with  it  goes  all  possibility  of  the 
formation  of  rightly  conceived  individual  character.  Of  this  loss  of 
opportunity  every  citizen  becomes  a  victim,  whether  he  lives  in  a  city 
and  has  more  [indirect  relations  to  land,  or  on  a  farm  which  he  owns 
and  upon  which  he  labors,  and  from  which  he  seeks  the  return  for  that 
labor.  The  direct  and  necessary  effect  of  soil  enrichment,  however, 
and  of  the  system  of  conduct  thereby  implied,  is  to  increase  every 
possible  "  opportunity  "  of  every  citizen. 

My  conclusion,  then,  is  that  no  scheme  of  society  or  its  reform  what- 
ever can  be  made  to  work  toward  righteousness  and  the  progress  of 
man  and  the  state  unless  it  begins  or  has  its  foundation  in  absolute 
justice  to  the  land. 

DR.  ROBERT  G.  ECCLES: 

All  I  can  do  is  to  indorse  and  confirm  the  positions  taken  by  the 
speaker  and  by  Mr.  Skilton.  In  speaking  of  the  exhaustion  of  the 
soil  caused  by  the  free-trade  policy,  the  latter  has  given  the  advocates 
of  that  policy  a  very  tough  nut  to  crack.  The  direction  of  an  indus- 
try of  a  nation  is  the  direction  of  its  intercourse ;  and  this  is  the  di- 
rection of  its  strength.  If  a  nation  trades  with  other  nations — inter- 
marries abroad,  as  it  were — its  home  interests  are  weakened  ;  but  if  it 
trades  with  itself,  the  bonds  of  consanguinity  are  strengthened.  Under 
free  trade  the  United  States  would  do  as  Brazil  is  about  to  do — break 
up  into  two  nations,  or  rather  four  or  five. 

The  lecture  of  this  evening  was  a  poem,  but  also  clear-cut  and  brimful 
of  science.  The  lecturer  adopted  the  true  scientific  method.  He  be- 
gan at  the  beginning  of  the  problem.  He  adopted  the  plan  of  Coper- 
nicus and  Galileo  in  the  study  of  the  solar  system,  and  not  the  crude 
way  of  the  ignorant  observer.  He  has  regarded  the  problem  from 
every  point  of  view,  and  pointed  to  the  interlocking  of  all  its  features. 
In  this  way  only  can  we  solve  any  social  or  scientific  problem.  What 

or  selfish  point  of  view,  being  at  the  time  when  he  wrote  unable  to  combine  the 
two  views  in  one  synthesis,  because  of  the  then  imperfect  state  of  human  knowl- 
edge. Here,  too,  Buckle  and  his  work  broke  down  and  failed.  Mr.  Spencer, 
however,  has  done  what  Adam  Smith  confessedly  could  not  do,  and  has  presented 
us  with  a  system  in  which  the  opposite  egoistic  and  altruistic  views  are  harmo- 
nized in  one  and  a  higher  view.  And  in  so  doing  he  has  given  us  the  new  scien- 
tific gospel  of  the  coming  civilization.  This  higher  view  I  have  attempted,  with 
what  I  know  is  but  imperfect  success  at  the  best,  to  apply  in  the  discussion  of 
this  t.  >pic.  But  I  venture  to  ask,  with  sufficient  modesty,  whether  enough  has  not 
been  developed  to  show  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  mass  of  the  American  people 
and  their  political  parties  to  reconsider,  not  simply  the  questions  of  protection 
and  free  trade,  but  all  the  other  affiliated  questions,  in  the  light  of  the  new  prin- 
ciple laid  down  by  Mr.  Spencer  and  of  the  history  of  a  hundred  years  and  more  ; 
and  also  whether  the  same  reconsideration  should  not  be  made  by  the  leaders  of 
evolutionary  thought  and  the  teachers  of  the  people  in  the  application  of  that 
thought  to  the  practical  politics  of  the  time  1 


144  The  Land  Problem. 

should  we  know  about  botany  without  chemistry,  or  about  chemistry 
without  physics?  Another  grand  point  of  the  lecturer  was  the  em- 
phasis he  laid  upon  the  fact  that  true  progress  can  only  be  attained 
by  allowing  every  human  soul  to  suffer  the  effects  of  its  own  conduct. 
The  only  way  to  civilize  a  man  is  to  let  him  suffer  the  natural  punish- 
ment of  his  acts.  I  regret  that  the  lecturer  did  not  go  further  into 
the  question  of  land  values  and  point  out  the  fact  that  the  "  unearned 
increment "  we  hear  so  much  about  from  those  who  study  this  as  a 
distinct  problem  constitutes  all  there  is  of  value  to  anything.  There 
is  no  value  in  existence  that  is  not  unearned  increment.  This  is  dem- 
onstrated by  examining  the  nature  of  value  in  exchange.  Labor  does 
not  constitute  it.  Labor  is  a  subsidiary  element,  but  not  the  law  of 
value.  A  man  in  Africa  who  picks  up  a  valuable  diamond  has  ex- 
pended but  little  labor.  Value  depends  solely  on  human  desire — it  is 
the  measure  of  your  desire  as  compared  with  mine.  When  we  exchange 
a  hat  and  a  dollar,  the  desire  for  each  is  nearly  equal  on  both  sides. 
All  this  desire  is  unearned  increment,  for  if  I  alone  desire  a  thing  it 
has  no  value,  no  matter  how  much  labor  has  been  expended  in  its  pro- 
duction. Its  value  increases  as  the  multitude  which  desires  it.  If  we 
are  to  tax  away  the  unearned  increment  of  land,  let  us  be  consistent 
and  tax  the  unearned  increment  of  everything  else. 

MR.  J.  WHIDDEN  GRAHAM  : 

I  could  wish  that  the  lecturer  had  paid  more  attention  to  the  politi- 
cal aspect  of  this  question — to  the  phase  presented  to  us  in  every-day  life, 
and  emphasized  in  the  single-tax  movement.  We  have  had  a  unique 
theory  of  the  effects  of  free  trade  set  forth  to-night,  as  a  tough  nut  to  be 
cracked,  but  modern  science  has  given  us  nut-crackers  to  use  instead  of 
teeth,  and  the  breaking  of  this  nut  is  no  hard  matter.  It  has  already 
been  done,  and  the  kernel  is  found  to  be  quite  moldy.  It  is  said  that 
free  trade  impoverishes  the  soil — that  this  is  the  result  of  cotton  ex- 
portation. Now,  it  makes  no  difference  to  the  cotton-grower  whether 
he  ships  his  crop  to  England  or  to  Massachusetts.  The  crop  goes  away 
from  his  farm,  of  necessity,  and  as  there  is  no  way  to  convert  the  cot- 
ton into  fertilizers  at  home,  it  might  as  well  go.  The  evil  must  be 
remedied  in  some  other  way,  as  it  is  done  in  Europe,  by  more  scientific 
attention  to  the  problem  of  fertilization. 

The  speaker  of  the  evening  is  in  practical  accord  with  Henry  George. 
The  public  has  a  right  to  take  as  taxes  the  value  which  the  public 
creates,  but  it  is  absurd  and  iniquitous  to  tax  those  who  improve  the 
land  for  their  improvements.  I  disagree  with  the  speaker  when  he 
says  that  the  system  of  land  tenure  is  not  important.  Is  the  present 
system  just  or  equitable  ?  When  we  see  vacant  lots  along  our  well- 


The  Land  Problem.  145 

paved,  lighted,  and  protected  streets,  there"  is  something  wrong.  A 
system  which  permits  the  locking  up  of  land  for  speculation  is  bad. 
Taxing  land  values  does  not  interfere  with  private  ownership,  but 
combines  it  with  the  recognition  of  the  right  of  the  public  to  the  value 
it  creates.  It  permits  the  best  use  of  the  land,  and  it  does  not  permit 
the  individual  to  hold  the  land  unless  he  makes  such  use  of  it. 

The  definition  of  value  given  here  this  evening  is  new  to  me.  If  men 
could  pick  up  diamonds  on  the  streets,  they  would  have  no  value.  The 
average  amount  of  time  and  labor  required  to  find  a  diamond  deter- 
mines its  market  value.  The  labor  cost  has,  up  to  this  time,  entered 
into  all  values.  Henry  George  lays  stress  upon  the  fact  that  produc- 
tion is  depressed  and  diminished  under  the  present  system  of  land 
tenure.  Unoccupied  coal  lands  and  farm  lands  should  not  be  allowed. 
It  is  curious  that  free  trade  should  be  attacked  because  foreign  coun- 
tries would  be  benefited  by  it.  Would  we  not  benefit  by  their  trade 
as  much  as  they  by  ours  ?  Are  not  all  such  benefits  mutual  f  Is  it  not 
to  our  interest  that  the  whole  world  should  be  prosperous,  so  that  every 
one  can  afford  to  buy  our  goods,  and  thus  increase  our  own  prosperity  ? 

PROF.  MASON,  in  closing :  There  is  one  thought  I  wish  to  leave  with 
you.  Look  around  you  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  where  there  is  so 
much  wealth  and  thrift  and  intelligence,  and  then  look  back  to  the 
beginnings  of  history  at  the  poor  little  groups  of  human  beings  without 
experience  or  teachers  or  advisers,  and  reflect  upon  the  rude  and  care- 
less way  in  which  the  resources  of  life  have  been  handled  by  man — 
then  think  with  what  rapidity  he  may  go  forward  in  the  future,  when 
he  shall  have  begun  to  husband  his  resources.  It  took  a  millennium 
to  make  the  stone  hammer,  but  now  we  work  more  rapidly.  It  is  a 
laudable  ambition  and  hope  to  have  some  part  in  the  new  gospel  of 
progress.  If  one  can  not  himself  invent  a  new  machine,  or  discover 
the  true  method  of  working,  he  may  at  least  be  a  colporteur  to  those 
who  are  less  informed  than  himself.  In  a  city  all  ages  and  conditions 
of  men  are  represented.  It  is  but  a  small  portion  of  the  nineteenth 
century  which  is  in  the  nineteenth  century ;  the  rest  is  scattered  back 
along  the  ages.  The  noblest  ambition  of  our  lives  should  be  to  take 
one  individual  out  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  bring  him  into  the 
nineteenth,  or  to  take  the  savage  by  the  hand  and  lead  him  to  civil- 
ization. Doing  this,  the  problems  we  are  studying  will  vanish  like 
the  snow  before  the  sun. 


THE  PROBLEM 
OF  CITY  GOVERNMENT 


BY 

LEWIS  0.  JANES 

AUTHOR  OP  A  STUDY  OP  PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY,   THE  EVOLUTION  OP  MORALS, 
LIPE  AS  A  FINE  ART,   ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Bryce's  The  American  Commonwealth ;  Fiske's  Civil  Government  in 
the  United  States;  Ely's  Taxation  in  American  States  and  Cities; 
Fothergill's  The  Town  Dweller,  his  Needs  and  his  Wants ;  Allinson 
and  Penrose's  Philadelphia :  a  History  of  Municipal  Development ; 
Bugbee's  City  Government  of  Boston ;  Howe's  City  Government  of 
New  Orleans ;  Bernard's  Establishment  of  Municipal  Government  in 
San  Francisco;  Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in  England;  Snow's 
City  Government  in  St.  Louis ;  Levermore's  New  Haven ;  Low's  The 
Problem  of  City  Government  (Johns  Hopkins  University  Series); 
Firth's  Municipal  London ;  Shaw's  Glasgow :  a  Municipal  Study,  in 
Century,  March,  1890,  How  London  is  Governed,  Century,  November, 
1890,  and  Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain,  Political  Science 
Quarterly,  June,  1889 ;  Ivins's  Municipal  Government,  in  Political  Sci- 
ence Quarterly,  June,  1887;  Amos  Parker  Wilder's  The  Municipal 
Problem ;  A  Plea  for  Liberty. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  CITY  GOVERNMENT. 

BY  DR.  LEWIS  GK  JANES. 

THE  ANCIENT  AND  THE  MODERN  CITY. 

THE  future  historian  who  shall  write  the  story  of  the 
modern  city,  and  of  the  American  municipality  in  particu- 
lar, as  Fustel  de  Coulanges  and  Sir  Henry  Maine  have  traced 
the  evolution  of  the  ancient  city,  will  find  ample  scope  for 
his  genius  and  his  industry,  and  by  their  exercise  will  ren- 
der all  subsequent  students  of  social  science  his  debtors. 
But  the  time  for  such  an  historical  accomplishment  is  not 
yet  come.  American  cities  are  not  yet  made ;  they  are  still  in 
the  making.  Our  municipalities  are  like  lank  and  overgrown 
youths,  who  have  expended  their  vitality  in  simply  growing, 
at  the  expense  of  grace,  symmetry,  and  healthful,  manly 
vigor.  We  have  great  aggregates  of  population,  but  no 
genuine  corporate  individuality  and  life.  In  the  growth  of 
our  cities  the  mechanical  processes  of  aggregation  and  dif- 
ferentiation have  outstripped  the  vital  and  assimilative  process 
of  integration,  and  our  urban  populations,  for  the  time  being, 
are  sufferers  from  the  evils  of  this  one-sided,  unsymmetrical 
development. 

Looking  at  this  question  historically,  we  first  note  that 
the  modern  city  and  the  ancient  city  are  by  no  means  iden- 
tical in  their  origin,  structure,  or  institutional  equipment. 
The  ancient  city  was  the  nucleus  and  creator  of  the  state. 
The  cities  of  Greece  antedated  and  formed  the  Alexandrian 
Empire.  Rome  preceded  and  created  the  Roman  Em- 
pire. The  modern  city,  on  the  contrary,  is  the  creature  of 
the  state,  on  which  it  depends  for  its  corporate  life.  The 
ancient  city  was  essentially  militant  in  its  structure.  The 
modern  city  is  essentially  industrial.  The  site  of  the  ancient 
city  was  usually  chosen  for  strategic  reasons;  that  of  the 
modern  city  almost  always  for  commercial  reasons.  The 
ancient  city  was  governed  by  a  military  autocracy,  or,  when 
the  form  was  nominally  republican,  by  a  small  minority  of 
free  men.  A  large  majority  of  its  population  were  slaves, 
possessed  of  no  civil  rights.  The  modern  city,  in  so  far  as 


150  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

its  local  autonomy  is  guaranteed,  is  governed  by  popular 
suffrage.  Its  only  servile  class  is  composed  of  those  hide- 
bound partisans  who  "always  vote  the  straight  ticket," 
obedient  to  the  dictation  of  the  party  boss  or  political 
caucus. 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CITY  ON  CIVILIZATION. 

Yet  beneath  these  obvious  differences  there  are  certain 
fundamental  features  of  resemblance  between  the  ancient 
and  the  modern  city.  Each  is  the  standard-bearer  of  social 
and  individual  progress.  Each  exemplifies  the  high-water 
mark  which  civilization  has  reached  at  the  period  of  its  ex- 
istence. Before  the  ancient  city,  men  dwelt  in  tents  and 
wandered  from  place  to  place  as  nomads — rolling  stones 
which  gathered  no  moss  of  wealth,  culture,  or  civic  virtue. 
They  combined  in  families,  clans,  or  tribes,  bound  together 
by  the  fact  or  fiction  of  blood-relationship.  When  they 
ceased  to  be  hunters  and  became  agriculturists,  they  sought 
for  themselves  fixed  habitations,  and  arduously  wrung  a 
scanty  living  from  the  reluctant  soil.  In  the  constitution 
of  the  city  men  first  recognized  that  the  ties  of  human 
brotherhood  were  of  wider  scope  than  those  of  blood-rela- 
tionship. Here  different  religions  met  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  mutual  toleration.  Here  were  the  beginnings  of  art, 
of  education,  of  a  true  cosmopolitan  spirit.  Examples  of 
those  forms  of  social  organization  which  antedated  the  city 
still  survive  and  furnish  the  scientific  data  for  comparison. 
They  will  never  become  wholly  extinct.  The  family  is  and 
must  continue  the  germ  of  all  societary  forms;  but  the 
ethical  life  of  the  isolated  family  rapidly  degenerates  toward 
the  rudeness,  narrowness,  and  egoism  characteristic  of  primi- 
tive man.  The  agriculturist  we  can  never  do  without, 
unless,  as  Dr.  Eccles  intimated  in  his  lecture  on  The 
Evolution  of  Chemistry,*  the  chemist  is  finally  to  supplant 
him  as  the  food  provider  of  the  race.  Even  the  nomad  sur- 
vives in  America  in  our  roving  bands  of  Indians  and  gyp- 
sies, and  in  the  modern  tramp,  the  true  nomadic  product 
of  our  latter-day  civilization. 

Despite  the  present  tendency  in  America  to  disparage  the 
city  as  the  source  and  center  of  influences  which  threaten 
the  peace  and  stability  of  society,  thoughtful  writers  on 

*  In  Evolution  in  Science,  Philosophy,  and  Art,  pp.  125-150. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  151 

social  science  are  agreed  in  recognizing  its  pre-eminent  place 
in  the  van  of  human  progress.  "  Man,  the  molecule  of 
society,"  says  Henry  0.  Carey, "  is  the  subject  of  social  science. 
.  .  .  His  greatest  need  is  that  of  association  with  his  fel- 
lows. ...  Of  all  animals  he  is  the  most  gregarious  ;  and  the 
greater  the  number  collected  in  a  given  space,  the  greater 
is  the  attractive  force  that  is  there  exerted,  as  was  shown  in 
the  cities  of  the  ancient  world — Nineveh  and  Babylon, 
Athens  and  Rome ;  and  as  is  now  shown  in  Paris  and  Lon- 
don, New  York  and  Philadelphia.  .  .  .  History  furnishes 
evidence  that  the  tendency  to  association,  without  which  the 
human  animal  can  not  become  the  true  MAN",  has  every- 
where grown  with  the  growth  of  local  centers  of  attraction 
and  declined  with  their  decline."  * 

The  free  cities  of  Europe  were  the  source  of  all  the  liber- 
ties which  are  now  the  common  property  of  the  civilized 
world.  Prof.  Gunton  declares  their  establishment  to  be 
"  the  first  real  step  toward  progress  and  freedom " ;  and 
adds :  "  As  the  towns  increased  more  rapidly  in  population 
and  prosperity,  they  naturally  developed  a  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence. .  .  .  The  burghers,  having  had  a  taste  of  wealth 
and  social  freedom,  were  ready  to  risk  them  all  to  retain 
these  benefits."  \  "  In  the  middle  ages,"  says  Charles  Sum- 
ner,  our  most  thoughtful  and  scholarly  statesman  of  the 
last  generation,  "  the  cities  became  the  home  of  freedom  and 
the  bridle  of  feudalism."  J  Adam  Smith  also  declares : 
"  Order  and  good  government,  and  along  with  them  the 
liberty  and  security  of  the  individual,  were  established  in 
cities  at  a  time  when  the  occupiers  of  the  land  were  exposed 
to  every  sort  of  violence."  §  And  Herbert  Spencer,  speak- 
ing of  the  gradual  liberation  of  industrial  workers  in  Europe, 
adds  his  testimony  to  the  influence  of  cities  in  promoting 
civilization  :  "  Growing  more  numerous,  more  powerful,  and 
taking  refuge  in  towns  where  it  was  less  under  the  influence 
of  the  militant  class,"  he  says,  "  this  industrial  population 
carried  on  its  life  under  the  system  of  voluntary  co-opera- 
tion. Though  municipal  governments  and  guild  regula- 
tions partially  pervaded  by  ideas  and  usages  derived  from  the 
militant  type  of  society  were  in  some  degree  coercive,  yet 
production  and  distribution  were  in  the  main  carried  on 

*  Social  Science,  pp.  37-39. 
t  Principles  of  Social  Economics,  pp.  84-37. 

t  Speech  on  The  Representative  System  and  its  Proper  Basis,  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts House  of  Representatives,  July  7,  1853.   Works,  vol.  iii. 
§  Wealth  of  Nations,  Book  III,  chap,  ii,  p.  308. 

11 


152  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

under  agreement — alike  between  buyers  and  sellers,  and 
between  masters  and  workers.  As  fast  as  these  social  rela- 
tions and  forms  of  activity  became  dominant  in  urban 
populations,  they  influenced  the  whole  community."  * 

With  the  fall  of  the  free  cities,  and  the  extinction  of 
local  self-government  in  Spain,  Italy,  France,  and  Germany, 
liberty  and  civilization  received  a  blow  from  which  they 
have  not  yet  recovered.  "  The  poverty  and  wretchedness 
which  followed  this  decay  of  the  Christian  and  violent  over- 
throw of  the  Moorish  cities  of  Spain,"  says  Prof.  Gunton, 
"  are  almost  indescribable.  ...  By  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  their  representation  in  the  Cortes,  and  with  it  their 
industrial  and  social  freedom,  was  practically  extinct.  From 
this  time  Spain  rapidly  declined,  and  soon  fell  from  the 
position  of  one  of  the  strongest  to  that  of  one  of  the  weak- 
est nations  of  Europe — a  fall  from  which  she  has  never 
since  recovered."  \  Surely  here  are  lessons  full  of  signifi- 
cance to  us.  No  perfection  of  the  details  of  municipal  ad- 
ministration under  an  autocratic  system  should  blind  us 
to  the  real  meaning  and  ultimate  effect  of  the  loss  of  local 
self-government.  When  we  are  informed,  as  we  were  by  a 
candidate  for  municipal  honors  in  our  recent  political  cam- 
paign— happily,  he  was  not  elected — that  self-government  in 
our  cities  is  a  failure,  and  are  advised  to  return  to  the  anti- 
quated method  of  government  by  commissions  appointed 
by  the  Governor  or  elected  by  the  State  Legislature,  remem- 
bering the  lessons  of  history  and  experience,  we  should 
firmly  decline  to  follow  such  advice. 

THE   CITY  JUDGED  BY  THE  SOCIAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF 
EVOLUTION. 

Here  let  us  pause  to  note  that  this  foremost  position  of 
the  city  in  the  van  of  civilization  is  precisely  what  we  should 
expect  to,  find  it  according  to  the  social  philosophy  of  evo- 
lution. In  the  city  the  structure  of  society  is  more  complex 
and  highly  evolved  than  in  any  other  form  of  social  com- 
bination. In  the  life  of  the  nomad  each  individual  strongly 
resembles  every  other  individual.  Every  man  is  a  "  jack  of 
all  trades  and  master  of  none,"  not  even  of  the  art  of  war, 
which  is  the  natural  avocation  of  all  nomadic  peoples.  In 
agricultural  communities  society  remains  relatively  homo- 

*  Introduction  to  A  Plea  for  Liberty,  p.  9. 
t  Principles  of  Social  Economics,  p.  40. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  153 

geneous.  Occupations  are  but  little  diversified.  Men  and 
women  have  common  and  narrow  interests,  common  objects 
of  thought,  and  culture  does  not  rise  above  a  certain  dead- 
level  of  uninspiring  mediocrity.  The  agriculturists  of 
former  times  were  slaves  or  serfs  until  contact  with  civic 
life  inoculated  them  with  the  love  and  hope  for  liberty.  So 
also  in  our  own  day  the  country  relies  upon  the  city  for  in- 
tellectual stimulus  and  ethical  regeneration.  The  salvation 
of  the  farmer,  as  well  as  of  the  farm,  lies  in  the  proximity  of 
cities  and  large  towns.  This  vital  contiguity  has  an  impor- 
tant bearing  on  some  of  the  problems  of  city  government, 
as  we  shall  hereafter  see.  No  purely  agricultural  com- 
munity ever  reached  or  ever  can  reach  a  high  degree  of 
culture  or  civilization.  Though  by  no  means  an  advocate 
of  high  protective  tariffs,  I  go  as  far  as  any  "  protectionist " 
in  emphasizing  the  importance  of  the  proximity  of  large 
towns  to  agricultural  communities.  If  necessary  to  se- 
cure this  co-ordinate  growth  of  city  and  country,  side  by 
side,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  I  would  not  justify  the 
erection  of  'Chinese  walls  or  the  infliction  of  prohibitory 
tariffs.  I  differ,  however,  from  the  advocates  of  this  policy 
of  exclusion  in  that  I  do  not  believe  it  to  be  necessary  in 
America  and  in  the  present  stage  of  civilization.  The 
proximity  of  the  city,  and  daily  contact  with  its  pulsing 
tides  of  thought  and  life  through  personal  intercourse,  and 
through  the  city  newspaper  of  the  better  class,  is  essential 
to  preserve  our  farming  populations  from  intellectual  stag- 
nation, a  fossilized  conservatism,  and  final  extinction  through 
the  exhaustion  of  both  their  physical  and  their  intellectual 
resources.  We  are  told  that  "  God  made  the  country  and 
man  made  the  town  " ;  and  no  one  better  than  myself  ap- 
preciates the  benefits  to  the  town-dweller  of  frequent  es- 
capes to  the  freer  air  and  brighter  sunlight  of  sea-shore  and 
mountains — to  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  country  hamlet 
or  the  upland  farm.  But  the  gifts  of  Nature  were  bestowed 
upon  man,  not  as  talents  to  be  buried,  but  as  opportunities 
to  be  improved ;  and  though  the  city  is  indeed  man-made, 
it  is  no  less  the  fulfillment  of  the  divine  purpose,  as  all  art 
is  the  crown  and  glory  and  final  justification  of  Nature. 

In  the  growing  village  we  already  have  the  germs  of  a 
larger  and  more  vigorous  intellectual  life.  If  the  country 
gives  freedom  to  limbs  and  lungs,  the  town  liberates  the  in- 
tellect and  sharpens  and  develops  all  the  higher  human  facul- 
ties. Here  wealth  accumulates  and  men'do  not  decay,  at  least 


154  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

not  morally  or  intellectually ;  the  fact  is,  they  never  do  de- 
cay save  under  the  grinding  stress  of  poverty  and  the  dead- 
ening influence  of  a  prevailing  uniformity  of  thought  and 
life.  As  the  village  becomes  a  city,  all  the  forces  by  means 
of  which  civilization  advances  increase.  Occupations  be- 
come more  diversified.  The  differentiation  of  society 
rapidly  progresses.  Men  become  individuals,  each  thinking 
his  own  unborrowed  thought,  seeking  his  congenial  asso- 
ciates, doing  his  chosen  work,  in  which  he  becomes  expert, 
thus  rendering  the  greatest  possible  service  to  society  and 
securing  for  himself  a  maximum  compensation.  The  mod- 
ern city  has  something  of  the  effect  upon  individual  and 
social  life  which  that  city  of  God — the  New  Jerusalem — 
will  have  upon  the  ransomed  spirit  according  to  the  Sweden- 
borgian  philosophy.  Here  every  one  goes  to  his  own  place : 
the  righteous  seek  the  righteous  for  associates,  the  vicious 
seek  the  vicious.  If  vice  becomes  segregated  and  intensi- 
fied, so  also  does  virtue.  By  their  very  intensity  and  pub- 
licity vicious  influences  become  easier  to  avoid  and  easier  to 
counteract.  If  the  city  contains  centers  of  vice  and  crime, 
it  is  the  center  from  which  flow  all  the  beneficent  influences 
which  tend  to  elevate,  instruct,  and  benefit  mankind.  It  is 
true  that  there  is  another  side  to  this  question — that  serious 
evils  attend  the  too  rapid  growth  of  urban  populations — 
that  physical  degeneracy  goes  hand  in  hand  with  intellectual 
culture  and  general  material  prosperity.  Later  on  we  shall 
consider  this  aspect  of  our  subject  more  fully ;  shall  seek 
for  the  causes  of  these  evils,  and  endeavor  to  prescribe  their 
proper  remedies. 

THE  EUROPEAN  AND  THE  AMERICAN  CITY. 

As  there  are  features  of  difference,  and  also  of  resem- 
blance, between  the  ancient  city  and  the  modern  city,  indica- 
tive of  corresponding  modifications  in  the  structure  and 
form  of  their  governmental  machinery,  so  also  similar  dis- 
tinctions, as  well  as  resemblances,  must  be  noted  between  the 
European  and  the  American  city.  We  can  not  remedy  the 
defects  in  our  municipal  systems  by  noting  the  superior  ex- 
cellence of  European  methods,  and  copying  the  examples 
set  up  for  our  emulation  in  Paris,  Glasgow,  or  Berlin.  So- 
cial institutions  are  not  made ;  they  grow.  Their  roots  run 
down  deep  into  the  ultimate  structure  of  the  society  which 
constitutes  the  soil  in  which  they  are  planted.  What  Mr. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  155 

Fiske  affirms  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is 
equally  true  of  the  government  of  our  corporate  munici- 
palities :  it  "  is  not  the  result  of  special  creation,  but  of  evo- 
lution." *  Democratic  America  must  solve  its  own  problems 
in  its  own  way,  using  the  forces  and  materials  at  its  com- 
mand. I  would  by  no  means  underrate  the  value  of  those 
admirable  monographs  on  the  government  of  European 
cities  which  Dr.  Shaw,  Mr.  Sylvester  Baxter,  Prof.  Lever- 
more,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Prof. 
Adams  and  Prof.  Ely,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  and 
others  have  furnished  us.  It  is  surely  worth  our  while  to 
know  that  excellent  results  have  been  accomplished  else- 
where, and  by  what  means  they  have  been  accomplished ; 
and  we  may  thence  sometimes  derive  valuable  suggestions 
for  our  own  guidance  What  I  desire  to  emphasize  is  the 
fact  that  we  are  working  under  conditions  radically  differ- 
ent in  many  respects  from  those  under  which  European  cities 
have  developed,  and  we  can  not  work  out  our  own  munici- 
pal salvation  by  becoming  servile  copyists  of  European 
methods. 

Our  problem  is  much  more  complex  than  that  of  Euro- 
pean cities.  If  we  ask  what  is  the  form  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment in  England,  Germany,  or  France,  for  example,  the 
question  is  easily  answered.  In  England  the  municipal 
borough  is  a  corporation  deriving  its  charter  directly 
from  the  national  Parliament,  as  the  German  city  does 
from  the  Reichstag,  and  the  French  city  from  the  National 
Assembly:  In  each  country  we  find  certain  local  modifica- 
tions in  governmental  methods  adapted  to  local  differences 
in  the  social  and  political  environment.  A  given  city  in 
either  country,  however,  is  a  type  of  all  the  rest.  With 
slight  variations  growing  out  of  the  special  necessities  of 
different  municipalities,  governmental  methods  are  alike  in 
all.  In  this  country,  however,  we  find  an  immense  diversity 
of  method  and  machinery  instead  of  a  relative  uniformity. 
The  American  city  derives  its  corporate  life  from  the  State, 
not  from  the  National  Government.  Each  State  regulates 
this  important  matter  for  itself,  and  the  methods  in  vogue 
are  about  as  diverse  as  the  number  of  States.  Moreover,  in 
those  States  where  cities  are  incorporated  by  special  charter, 
each«city  has  its  own  particular  methods,  which  are  not  ne- 
cessarily or  usually  identical  with  those  of  any  other.  And 
in  some  States  where  general  laws  are  theoretically  substi- 

*  Civil  Government  in  the  United  States'.    By  John  Fiske. 


156  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

tuted  for  special  charters,  the  classification  and  subdivision 
of  cities  into  different  grades,  to  each  of  which  is  assigned  a 
varying  governmental  machinery,  gives  rise  to  a  diversity 
almost  as  complex  ;  so  that  the  laws  governing  our  munici- 
pal administration  may  well  be  described  in  the  language  of 
Carlyle :  "  The  sound  of  them  is  not  a  voice,  conveying 
knowledge  or  memorial  of  any  earthly  or  heavenly  thing ;  it 
is  a  wide-spread,  inarticulate,  slumberous  mumblement."  * 

QUASI-MILITANT   STRUCTURE   OF  THE   EUROPEAN   ClTY. 

Moreover,  the  cities  of  Europe,  both  in  their  origin  and 
in  their  present  methods  of  municipal  government,  are 
quasi-militant  rather  than  purely  industrial.  While  the 
struggle  for  better  means  of  subsistence  was  undoubtedly 
the  motive  which  always  impelled  men  to  gather  in  towns 
and  cities,  as  it  has  been  the  dominant  incentive  to  all  social 
advancement,  the  location  and  political  administration  of 
European  cities  were  often  determined  by  the  necessity  for 
compromise  with  existing  militant  conditions.  These  cities 
either  grew  out  of  the  original  Eoman  trading  colonies,  and 
were  patterned  in  their  political  structure  upon  Eoman  im- 
perialism, or  they  were  created  by  the  clustering  of  popula- 
tions around  the  castles  of  the  feudal  barons.  At  first  forced 
to  pay  tribute  to  the  barons  for  protection  against  local  ma- 
rauders, as  they  grew  in  strength  and  acquired  a  desire  for 
larger  liberty,  they  were  compelled  to  win  it  by  conflict 
with  their  feudal  masters,  and  thus  developed  a  militant  or- 
ganization of  their  own  societies.  Paris  and  Berlin,  repre- 
sentative cities  of  the  European  continent,  have  not  yet 
wholly  outgrown  the  militant  features  of  their  civic  life. 
The  Parisian  gens  tfarmes,  and  the  Berlin  police  force,  as 
well  as  the  fire  departments  of  many  European  cities,  are 
local  arms  of  the  national  military  service,  appointed  and 
officered  by  the  central  or  imperial  government,  having  no 
responsibility  to  the  local  administration.  The  great  city 
of  Paris,  though  under  a  regime  nominally  republican,  has 
no  administrative  head  chosen  by  its  own  citizens  or  by  their 
deputies.  The  Prefect  of  the  Seine,  who  is  the  nearest  rep- 
resentative of  the  mayor  of  our  American  cities,  is  appointed 
by  the  General  Government  and  is  wholly  irresponsible  to  the 
citizens  of  Paris.  The  true  corporate  life  and  individuality 
of  Paris  and  of  other  French  cities  resides  in  the  communes, 

*  Introduction  to  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  157 

which  are  artificial  territorial  divisions  not  coincident  with 
the  natural  centers  of  population,  in  the  cities  correspond- 
ing somewhat  with  our  wards.  Each  commune  has  its  own 
resident  maire  and  a  sort  of  local  autonomy. 

Perfect  as  are  some  of  the  municipal  regulations  of  the 
European  cities,  it  is  evident  that  we  in  America  can  never 
reach  a  like  perfection  by  copying  their  methods.  Take 
the  police  system,  for  example.  The  citizens  of  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  are  not  likely,  I  think,  to  attempt  an  im- 
provement of  their  police  force  by  resorting  to  the  old  ex- 
periment of  a  metropolitan  body  appointed  by  the  State — 
still  less  to  the  espionage  of  a  force  owing  its  supreme  allegi- 
ance to  the  Government  at  Washington.  Yet  it  can  not  be 
denied  that  the  European  system  is  admirably  perfect  in  its 
workings.  A  friend  of  mine  recently  purchased  a  book  in 
a  Berlin  bookstore,  having  arrived  in  that  city,  where  he 
was  a  stranger,  scarcely  three  hours  previous.  Having  an- 
other engagement  farther  on,  he  left  the  book  in  the  store, 
without  name  or  address,  remarking  that  he  would  call  for 
it  on  his  way  home.  He  was  detained  beyond  his  expecta- 
tion, and  found  the  store  closed  when  he  returned ;  but,  to 
his  surprise,  on  reaching  his  hotel  he  perceived  the  package 
leaning  against  the  door  of  his  room.  On  inquiring  the 
next  day  at  the  store  how  they  knew  where  to  send  it,  he 
was  informed  that  the  policeman  instructed  them.  The  re- 
sult in  this  instance  was  convenient ;  but  the  knowledge  of 
such  espionage  is  not  agreeable,  I  think,  to  the  free-born 
American  citizen.  Moreover,  some  of  the  most  excellent 
features  in  the  local  government  of  European  cities  have 
been  achieved  by  an  approximation  to  our  own  democratic 
methods.  When  we  envy  Berlin  her  perfect  pavements 
and  clean  streets,  we  should  remember  that  these  admirable 
results  have  only  been  accomplished  within  the  last  sixteen 
years,  and  are  due,  as  Mr.  Baxter  tells  us,  "  to  a  change  of 
administration  from  the  state  to  the  city,"  or,  in  other 
words,  to  the  application  of  the  principle  of  local  self-gov- 
ernment. And  the  marked  progress  made  in  other  Euro- 
pean cities  in  recent  years  has  been  coincident  with  a  steady 
tendency  to  the  widening  of  the  suffrage. 

RELATION-  OF  INSTITUTIONS  TO  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 

In  treating  of  the  problem  of  city  government  in  Amer- 
ica, I  must  premise  that  I  by  no  means'  assume  that  the  ad- 


158  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

mitted  evils  under  which  we  labor  are  wholly  due  to  defects 
in  our  municipal  machinery,  or  are  to  be  completely  reme- 
died by  the  correction  of  these  defects.  This  problem 
is  but  a  part  of  a  much  larger  social  and  political  problem 
given  us  for  solution.  The  conditions  of  city  life  are  every- 
where interwoven  with  circumstances  which  reach  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  the  corporate  municipality,  and  react 
upon  the  conditions  of  our  civic  life.  And  back  of  the 
superficial  phenomena  of  our  society  they  rest  upon  laws 
and  conditions  inherent  in  human  nature  itself,  and  even  in 
the  structure  of  the  physical  universe.  As  an  evolutionist  I 
believe  in  a  science  of  sociology,  the  laws  of  which  are 
measurably  discoverable,  and  upon  obedience  to  which  all 
true  social  advancement  is  dependent.  To  the  discovery 
and  application  of  these  laws  I  look,  therefore,  for  the  rem- 
edy of  the  present  ills  of  society — not  to  any  of  the  pana- 
ceas proposed  by  the  various  empirical  schools  of  social 
reform.  The  faults  of  our  civic  government  are  primarily 
faults  of  human  nature  itself,  of  individual  indifference, 
unwisdom  and  immorality  ;  and  these  must  be  corrected  by 
the  slow  processes  of  ethical  and  intellectual  culture  before 
we  can  expect  perfect  institutions.  You  can  no  more  se- 
cure a  perfect  society  by  perfecting  its  governmental  ma- 
chinery than  you  can  make  a  moral  and  every  way  admira- 
able  man  by  dressing  him  in  a  perfectly  fitting  suit  of 
clothes.  Nevertheless,  the  first  thing  in  a  municipal  system, 
as  in  a  suit  of  clothes,  is  to  have  it  fit — to  adapt  the  institu- 
tion to  the  requirements  of  the  situation.  A  good  lady  of 
Concord  once  said  to  Mr.  Emerson  that  "the  consciousness 
of  being  dressed  in  a  nice,  well-fitting  gown  was  superior  to 
the  consolations  of  religion  " ;  and  it  can  not  be  denied 
that  the  consciousness  of  living  in  a  well-governed  city 
would  be  a  constant  stimulus  to  individual  self-respect  and 
civic  pride.  Man  is  greater  than  institutions ;  but  institu- 
tions react  upon  the  man,  and  either  dwarf  or  stimulate 
his  natural,  healthful  evolution.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  small 
moment,  therefore,  whether  the  institutions  "  fit "  or  not. 

APPLICATION  OF  THE  SCIENTIFIC  METHOD  TO  THE 
MUNICIPAL  PROBLEM. 

In  an  hour's  discussion  a  detailed  statement  of  the  evils 
of  municipal  administration  will  not  be  expected.  We  all 
know  that  we  have  a  cumbrous  and  expensive  machinery  of 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  159 

civic  government,  badly  managed,  as  a  rule,  by  incompe- 
tent officials;  enormous  taxes  and  municipal  debts;  over- 
crowded tenements  and  public  conveyances ;  dirty  streets ; 
costly  illumination ;  and  a  score  of  other  valid  sources  of 
complaint.  These  evils  are  patent  to  every  intelligent  citi- 
zen ;  and  the  proposed  infallible  remedies  are  about  as  nu- 
merous as  the  advertised  specifics  for  physical  ailments,  and 
would  doubtless  prove  nearly  as  dangerous  in  their  experi- 
mental application.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  add  one  more 
to  these  proposed  specifics.  The  aim  of  this  paper,  on  the 
contrary,  is  to  present  the  results  of  a  scientific  study  of 
our  municipal  methods,  some  of  which  do  not  appear  to  be 
generally  comprehended ;  to  note  certain  tendencies  hereto- 
fore manifested  in  the  variation  of  the  machinery  and 
methods  of  our  city  governments  as  they  adapt  themselves 
to  the  growing  life  of  our  American  municipalities ;  and,  by 
a  due  consideration  of  the  forces  potent  in  producing  these 
variations,  to  discover,  if  possible,  the  natural  trend  of  insti- 
tutional development,  and  the  consequent  scientific  direc- 
tion of  genuine  remedial  efforts ;  and,  finally,  to  estimate 
the  probable  form  which  our  city  governments  will  assume 
in  the  near  or  proximate  future. 

IMPORTANCE  AND   COMPLEXITY   OF  THIS    PROBLEM  IN 
AMERICA.    INTERESTING  FACTS. 

A  hasty  glance  at  a  few  pertinent  facts  will  enable  us 
better  to  understand  the  importance  and  immense  com- 
plexity of  this  problem.  By  a  recent  census  bulletin,  the 
towns  and  cities  in  the  United  States  of  over  eight  thou- 
sand inhabitants  contain  29-12  per  cent  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation. This  is  nearly  double  the  proportion  of  the  urban 
population  in  1860,  and  about  ten  times  as  great  as  it  was 
a  century  ago.  In  the  North  Atlantic  division,  including 
New  England,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania, 
the  urban  population  constitutes  about  one  half  the  total 
number  of  inhabitants.  This,  however,  is  not  so  remark- 
able as  the  condition  of  things  in  some  of  our  newest  States. 
In  Washington,  for  example,  on  our  extreme  Northwestern 
border,  fully  one  third  of  the  inhabitants  dwell  in  incor- 
porated cities,  mainly  in  the  four  flourishing  towns  of 
Tacoma,  Seattle,  Spokane  Falls,  and  Fairhaven,  which  had 
hardly  won  recognition  on  the  maps  ten  years  ago. 

As  affecting  the  matter  of  municipal  government,  how- 


160  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

ever,  the  census  statistics  are  extremely  defective.  The 
population  bulletins  do  not  accurately  distinguish  between 
incorporated  cities  and  large  towns  otherwise  governed. 
No  adequate  information  concerning  the  nature  and  struct- 
ure of  our  city  governments  is  obtainable  from  the  census 
returns.  Nor  has  this  information  been  elsewhere  collated, 
that  I  can  discover,  save  as  to  a  few  of  our  leading  cities  in 
the  admirable  monographs  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  series, 
and  in  an  occasional  sporadic  magazine  article.  I  was 
therefore  forced  to  seek  this  information  directly  from  the 
mayors  of  our  larger  cities  in  every  State  and  Territory  of 
the  Union.  To  them  I  addressed  circular  letters,  and  am 
in  receipt  of  about  350  interesting  replies.  From  the  infor- 
mation thus  obtained  I  can  only  formulate  a  few  salient 
and  important  facts,  statistics,  and  conclusions. 

Of  the  443  towns  of  more  than  8,000  inhabitants  enumer- 
ated in  the  census  bulletin  before  mentioned,  for  example, 
about  sixty-five  are  not  incorporated  cities,  but  either  large 
New  England  townships,  which  often  contain  several  sepa- 
rate villages,  or  else  they  are  examples  of  those  inchoate 
cities  which  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Connecticut 
are  called  "  boroughs "  —  a  term  borrowed  from  English 
usage,  originally  meaning  a  walled  city* — in  New  York, 
"  incorporated  villages  " ;  and  in  other  States,  "  towns,"  as 
distinguished  from  "  townships,"  "  civil  districts,"  "  justice 
districts,"  "  magisterial  districts,"  "  militia  districts,"  "  pre- 
cincts," "  wards,"  and  "  beats  " — as  the  minor  civil  divisions 
are  variously  designated  in  diiferent  States — which  comprise 
definite  allotments  of  territory  without  regard  to  population. 
The  large  towns  of  New  England,  in  other  States  usually 
designated  "  townships,"  are  still  under  the  democratic  ad- 
ministration of  the  "  town-meeting."  f  The  boroughs  and 
incorporated  villages  possess  certain  corporate  privileges  of 
a  simple  character,  and  are  usually  governed  by  a  small 
board  of  "trustees"  or  " burgesses,"  with  a  president  or 
chief  burgess  at  their  head.  Both  legislative  and  executive 
functions  are  vested  in  this  single  representative  body.  In 
Pennsylvania,  some  villages  of  more  than  15,000  inhabit- 
ants are  still  controlled  by  this  simple  governmental  ma- 
chinery. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  incorporated  cities  in 

*  This  word  is  a  survival  indicative  of  the  original  militant  structure  of  the 
European  city.  In  England  the  "  city  "  is  the  cathedral  town,  whatever  its  popu- 
lation or  government.  The  incorporated  municipality  is  a  "  borough.11 

t  Sometimes,  owing  to  their  size,  they  are  divided  into  several  voting  districts. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  161 

all  parts  of  the  country,  and  especially  in  the  South  and 
West,  possessing  the  complete  machinery  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment, thr^t  contain  populations  of  much  less  than  8,000 
inhabitants.  In  the  Atlantic  States,  with  the  exception  of 
Pennsylvania,  cities  are  usually  incorporated  by  special 
charters,  granted  by  the  State  Legislatures,  and  such  charters 
are  seldom  bestowed  except  upon  villages  of  considerable 
size ;  though  the  ancient  city  of  Vergennes,  Vermont,  incor- 
porated in  1788 — sometimes,  though  erroneously,  called  the 
smallest  city  in  the  Union— contains  but  1,773  inhabitants. 
Under  the  system  of  special  charters  there  is  necessarily  a 
great  diversity  of  administrative  machinery.  This  system 
prevails  in  our  own  State,  though  it  was  condemned  by  the 
able  commission  appointed  by  the  late  Governor  Tilden,  and 
has  been  more  recently  criticised  and  denounced  by  the 
committee  of  our  State  Senate  of  which  the  Hon.  Jacob 
Sloat  Fassett  was  the  energetic  chairman. 

Many  of  the  Western  States,  and  also  Pennsylvania,  have 
general  laws  governing  the  incorporation  of  cities ;  these 
are  usually  classified  in  divisions  and  subdivisions,  accord- 
ing to  the  population,  all  cities  of  a  given  grade  being 
governed  by  the  same  administrative  machinery.  In  Ohio, 
for  example,  cities  are  divided  into  a  First  Class,  subdi- 
vided into  three  grades,  and  a  Second  Class,  subdivided  into 
four  grades ;  and  the  law  provides  that  any  town  of  5,000 
inhabitants  may,  by  a  vote  of  a  majority  of  its  citizens, 
become  a  city  of  the  lowest  grade.  There  are  many  cities 
of  this  size  in  the  State.  Below  the  lowest  grade  of  cities, 
villages  and  hamlets  are  also  classified.  In  some  States 
there  seems  to  be  no  inferior  limit  set  for  the  population  of 
cities.  Kansas  now  contains  no  less  than  362  incorporated 
cities,  only  sixteen  of  them  having  more  than  5,000  inhabit- 
ants. The  remaining  346  would  not  be  eligible  for  muni- 
cipal honors  in  Ohio.  Of  these,  315  have  less  than  2,000 
inhabitants,  266  have  less  than  1,000,  and  ten  have  less 
than  100  !  The  flourishing  municipalities  of  Avilla  and 
Appomattox  in  Kansas  have  a  total  population  of  thirty-four 
inhabitants  each — not  voter s,  but  inhabitants  of  both  sexes 
and  all  ages,  including  paupers,  criminals,  and  "  Indians  not 
taxed."  One  would  suppose  there  should  be  little  strife  for 
municipal  honors  in  these  cities.  Each  qualified  voter  could 
appropriate  two  or  three  offices  for  himself,  and  still  leave  a 
number  vacant  as  an  inducement  to  immigration.  In  view 
of  these  facts,  the  advice  of  Horace  Greeley  may  appropri- 


162  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

ately  be  tendered  as  a  soothing  balm  to  the  defeated  candi- 
dates in  our  recent  municipal  contests  :  "  Go  West,  young 
men ;  go  West ! " 

NUMBER  OF  AMERICAN  AS  COMPARED  WITH  EUROPEAN 

CITIES. 

The  total  number  of  incorporated  cities  in  the  United 
States,  as  indicated  by  the  census  bulletins,  with  such  cor- 
rections as  I  have  been  able  to  make  by  personal  investiga- 
tion and  correspondence,  is  1,667.  This  number  may  be 
accepted  as  closely  approximating  the  true  figures.  The  num- 
ber varies  from  month  to  month,  however,  and  is  constantly 
increasing.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  fully  one  third  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  are  now  living  in  communities  possess- 
ing a  local  autonomy  guaranteed  by  corporate  charters  or 
general  legislative  enactments.  This  proportion  is  greatest 
in  the  North  and  East,  least  in  the  South.  It  is  greatest  in 
manufacturing  and  commercial  centers,  least  where  agri- 
culture is  the  dominant  interest,  except  in  the  remarkable 
and  exceptional  instance  of  Kansas. 

The  special  importance  of  the  problem  of  municipal 
government  in  the  United  States  may  be  further  illustrated 
by  one  or  two  comparisons.  Though  the  tendency  to  con- 
centrate in  cities  is  a  world-wide  feature  in  our  progressive 
civilization,  our  own  rapid  and,  in  some  respects,  abnormal 
strides  in  population  have  carried  us  ahead  of  most  European 
nations.  By  the  latest  census  the  number  of  corporate 
boroughs  in  England  was  about  250.  In  the  United  States 
there  are  more  than  double  this  number  of  cities  containing 
over  5,000  inhabitants.  Three  hundred  and  fifty-three 
cities  and  towns  in  the  United  States  contain  more  than 
10,000  inhabitants  each.  The  German  Empire  has  now 
about  thirty  cities  of  upward  of  50,000  population ;  England 
has  sixty-two ;  the  United  States  has  fifty-eight.  We  have 
167  cities  with  more  than  20,000  inhabitants ;  Germany  has 
less  than  100.  A  similar  comparison  might  be  made  with 
France  and  other  European  nations.  The  rapid  growth  of 
our  larger  cities  is  not  more  significant  than  is  the  constantly 
accelerating  development  of  our  villages  to  proportions 
worthy  of  municipal  honors.  The  causes  of  this  tendency 
to  city  growth  are  world-wide,  arid  as  enduring  as  our 
civilization.  We  can  not  prevent  it  if  we  will,  and  as  evolu- 
tionists we  should  not  desire  its  absolute  prevention,  but 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  1G3 

merely  to  check  the  abnormal  rate  of  urban  development, 
which  is  a  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  wasteful  neglect 
and  impoverishment  of  our  farming  lands.  We  should  waste 
no  time  in  attempting  to  stem  this  irresistible  tide  by  arti- 
ficial measures,  but  aim  rather,  by  such  rational  means  as 
we  can  command,  to  ameliorate  the  inevitable  evils  that  ac- 
company the  too  rapid  development  of  a  tendency  which  in 
itself  is  civilizing  and  beneficent. 

VARIATIONS  IN  GOVERNMENTAL  MACHINERY. 

The  great  differences  in  population  and  territory  between 
our  larger  and  smaller  cities  naturally  give  rise  under  our 
methods  to  innumerable  variations  in  governmental  ma- 
chinery. These  variations  furnish  an  admirable  opportunity 
for  the  operation  of  the  law  of  natural  selection,  and  if  not 
interfered  with  by  unwise  experimentation  with  socialistic 
panaceas,  we  may  confidently  anticipate  that  a  form  of  muni- 
cipal government  adapted  to  our  needs  will  ultimately  be 
evolved.  In  the  States  where  cities  are  incorporated  under 
general  laws  the  larger  ones  are  usually  so  classified  that 
each  one  constitutes  the  sole  representative  of  its  particular 
grade.  In  Pennsylvania,  for  example,  Philadelphia  is  the 
only  city  of  the  highest  grade,  for  which  a  population  of  at 
least  300,000  is  requisite.  In  Ohio,  Cincinnati  is  the  sole 
representative  of  its  grade,  as  are  also  Toledo  and  Cleveland 
of  their  respective  grades.  In  Ohio  cities  entitled  to  advance 
to  a  higher  grade  by  increase  of  population  can  only  do  so 
by  a  vote  of  their  qualified  electors.  As  a  result  of  this  pro- 
vision, it  follows  that  the  actual  population  of  a  city  by  no 
means  determines  its  present  municipal  status.  Cities  some- 
times decline  to  accept  the  promotion  to  which  they  are  en- 
titled, to  avoid  the  necessity  of  changing  their  form  of 
government.  This  is  a  serious  defect  in  general  legislation 
when  it  descends  to  minute  particulars — a  defect  which 
might  in  part  be  remedied  by  making  the  passage  to  the 
higher  grades  compulsory,  but  which  it  would  seem  bet- 
ter to  .avoid  by  more  general  and  flexible  enabling  acts. 
Under  this  system  the  Legislature  may  grant  to  single 
cities  what  are  practically  special  charters — as  was  recent- 
ly done  for  Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  and  other  Ohio  cities 
—under  the  form  of  general  laws  adapted  to  their  re- 
spective grades.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania  has 
declared  minute  subdivision  in  municipal  gradation  to  be 


164  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

unconstitutional,  since  it  amounts,  in  effect,  to  special  leg- 
islation. 

EXECUTIVE  FUNCTIONS  IN  AMERICAN  CITIES. 

To  particularize  concerning  the  various  forms  of  adminis- 
trative machinery  in  our  American  cities  is  manifestly  im- 
possible in  an  hour's  discussion.  The  chief  executive  officer 
in  our  cities  is  usually  termed  the  Mayor,  and  in  most  in- 
stances is  elected  by  popular  vote.  In  some  cities,  however, 
as  in  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  he  is  chosen  by  the  City  Council. 
Sacramento,  the  capital  of  California — a  city  of  more  than 
30,000  inhabitants — has  a  municipal  government  of  the 
simplest  possible  character.  The  entire  executive  and  legis- 
lative functions  of  the  city  are  vested  in  three  trustees,  one 
only  being  chosen  annually  for  a  term  of  three  years.  The 
first  trustee  is  Mayor  ex  officio ;  the  second  is  street  com- 
missioner, and  the  third  superintendent  of  the  water-works. 
These  constitute  the  heads  of  all  the  executive  departments ; 
and,  acting  together  as  a  board  of  trustees,  they  perform  all 
the  legislative  functions  of  the  city  government.  This  sys- 
tem has  been  in  operation  twenty-nine  years,  and  the  Mayor 
says  it  gives  good  satisfaction. 

In  many  American  cities  the  Mayor  possesses  legislative  as 
well  as  executive  functions,  being  in  some  instances  a  mem- 
ber of  the  City  Council,  and  in  others  the  presiding  officer  of 
the  council,  if  a  single  body,  or  of  the  upper  house  if  the 
bicameral  system  prevails ;  having  the  right  to  take  part  in 
debate,  and  a  casting  vote  in  case  of  a  tie.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  members  of  many  and  perhaps  of  most  of  our  city 
councils  or  aldermanic  boards,  either  as  individuals  or  as 
self-constituted  committees,  exercise  executive  as  well  as 
legislative  functions.  In  such  cases  the  Mayor,  unless  he  is 
a  member  of  the  council,  is  often  a  mere  ornamental  figure- 
head, without  the  veto  or  the  power  of  choosing  subordinate 
executive  officials.  In  Ohio  neither  the  Governor  of  the 
State  nor  the  mayors  of  the  cities  can  exercise  the  veto 
power.  In  Key  West,  Pensacola,  and  perhaps  other  cities  of 
Florida,  there  are  no  municipal  officers  chosen  by  the  people. 
Each  of  these  cities  is  satisfactorily  governed  by  a  board  of 
commissioners  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  the  State. 
Popular  government  may  be  said  to  have  proved  temporarily 
a  failure  in  these  cities,  owing  to  the  peculiar  character  of 
their  populations ;  in  the  homely  but  expressive  phrase  of  a 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  165 

leading  official,  it  has  "  played  out."  Our  national  capital, 
the  city  of  Washington,  is  likewise  admirably  governed  by  a 
commission  appointed  under  the  authority  of  Congress,  after 
experimenting  with  the  elective  system.  The  circumstances 
of  these  cities,  however,  are  peculiar,  and  similar  methods 
of  government  are  not  likely  to  prevail  generally  in  this 
country.  One  Western  city  is  practically  in  the  hands  of  a 
receiver,  its  mayor  and  council  being  deposed,  and  its  gov- 
ernment vested  in  a  so-called  board  of  street  commission- 
ers, appointed  by  the  Governor  of  the  State,  pending  the 
issue  of  a  certain  railroad  litigation  in  which  the  city  is 
involved. 

SINGLE  AND  BICAMERAL  LEGISLATIVE  BODIES. 

In  New  England  (except  the  State  of  Vermont)  and  in 
Pennsylvania  the  bicameral  system  prevails,  with  some  ex- 
ceptions, in  the  constitution  of  the  city  legislatures.  These 
are  usually  divided  into  two  independent  bodies  called  the 
Board  of  Aldermen  and  Common  Council,  or  Select  and 
Common  Councils.  In  St.  Louis,  where  this  system  also 
prevails,  they  are  termed  the  Council  and  House  of  Dele- 
gates. These  bodies  are  generally  elected  by  wards,  the 
lower  house  being  larger  than  the  upper.  No  legislation 
can  be  effected  in  these  cities  without  the  concurrent  action 
of  both  houses.  It  is  usually  assumed  that  this  is  the  pre- 
vailing mode  of  city  government  in  this  country,  at  least  in 
our  larger  cities.  So  careful  a  student  of  our  civic  institu- 
tions as  Prof.  John  Fiske,  in  his  exceedingly  valuable 
manual  on  Civil  Government  in  the  United  States,  asserts 
(p.  116) :  "  The  City  Council  is  a  legislative  body  usually 
consisting  of  two  chambers,  the  Aldermen  and  the  Common 
Council,  elected  by  the  citizens ;  but  in  many  of  the  small 
cities  and  a  few  of  the  largest,  as  New  York,  Brooklyn, 
Chicago,  and  San  Francisco,  there  is  but  one  such  chamber." 
And  Prof.  Bryce,  whose  American  Commonwealth  is  uni- 
versally and  justly  recognized  as  the  ablest  exposition  of  the 
principles  and  methods  of  our  Government  which  has  yet 
been  written,  says,  somewhat  more  cautiously  (vol.  i,  p.  594) : 
"  We  find  in  all  the  larger  cities  ...  a  legislature  con- 
sisting usually  of  tiuo,  but  sometimes  of  one  chamber, 
directly  elected  by  the  city  voters."  And  again  (p.  596)  : 
"  The  city  legislature  usually  consists  in  small  cities  of  one 
chamber ;  in  large  ones,  of  two,  the  upper  of  which  gener- 


166  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

ally  bears  the  name  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  the  lower 
that  of  the  Common  Council." 

The  fact  is,  on  the  contrary,  that  both  in  the  large  cities 
and  in  the  small  ones  the  bicameral  system  constitutes  the 
exception  instead  of  the  rule.  Of  our  five  chief  cities,  three 
— New  York,  Chicago,  and  Brooklyn — are  governed  by  a 
single  legislative  body.  Philadelphia  and  St.  Louis  adhere 
to  the  bicameral  system.  The  same  proportion  holds  good 
in  our  ten  largest  cities.  Of  the  seventeen  American  mu- 
nicipalities having  upward  of  200,000  inhabitants,  eleven 
have  but  one  legislative  body  and  six  have  two.  Of  the 
twenty-eight  cities  containing  over  100,000  inhabitants, 
eighteen  adhere  to  the  single,  ten  to  the  dual  system.  Of 
the  376  incorporated  cities  of  more  than  8,000  inhabitants, 
294  prefer  the  single,  and  only  82  the  bicameral  system, 
while  the  remaining  cities  of  the  1,600  or  more  in  the  United 
States  are  almost  without  exception  governed  by  but  one 
legislative  body. 

SCHOOL  BOARDS  AND  COMMISSIONS. 

In  nearly  all  our  cities  the  control  of  the  public  schools  is 
intrusted  to  a  separate  body  called  the  School  Committee, 
or  Board  of  Public  Education,  sometimes  appointed  by 
the  Mayor,  sometimes  elected  by  the  people,  and  usually 
possessing  certain  independent  legislative  and  executive 
functions.  As  our  cities  have  attained  a  considerable  size, 
necessitating  an  increase  in  the  number  of  administrative 
departments,  this  need  has  often  been  met  by  the  creation 
of  commissions,  usually  composed  of  several  members,  some- 
times elected  by  the  councils  or  appointed  by  the  Mayor, 
but  frequently  acting  independently  of  Mayor  and  Council, 
by  the  appointment  and  authority  of  the  Governor  or  State 
Legislature.  These  commissions  divide  the  executive  func- 
tions with  the  Mayor,  and  often  have  certain  independent 
legislative  powers  within  their  special  provinces.  Such,  in 
the  barest  outline,  are  the  leading  features  of  the  diverse  and 
contradictory  methods  of  governmental  machinery  now 
prevalent  in  our  American  municipalities. 

EVOLUTIONARY  TENDENCIES  :  POPULAR  GOVERNMENT. 

Looking  over  the  broad  field  of  municipal  life  in  Amer- 
ica, the  impression  at  first  is  chaotic  indeed ;  but  as  we  study 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  167 

it  historically  and  note  the  trend  of  institutional  develop- 
ment, certain  general  but  well-defined  tendencies  will  be 
made  manifest. 

Some  of  our  earliest  municipalities,  like  Philadelphia, 
and  Annapolis,  Maryland,  were  originally  created  as  close 
corporations,  their  trustees  or  councilmen  being  appointed 
for  life,  with  the  power  of  self-perpetuation  by  choosing 
their  own  successors.  This  system  was  copied  from  that  of 
England,  where  most  of  the  municipal  boroughs  retained 
this  form  until  1835.  It  was  short-lived  in  America,  and 
gave  place  to  the  democratic  method  of  election  by  the 
people,  for  definite  terms  of  office,  usually  for  a  single  year. 
Of  late  there  has  been  a  decided  tendency  to  lengthen  the 
terms  of  office  for  Mayor  and  councilmen  to  two,  three,  or 
foui  years,  thus  securing  greater  permanence  and  stability  to 
the  government.  Looking  toward  the  same  end,  council- 
men,  in  some  cities,  are  now  divided  into  two  or  three 
classes,  one  half  or  one  third  being  elected  annually.  This 
promotes  a  more  thorough  acquaintance  of  the  legislators 
with  the  affairs  of  the  city,  and  prevents  sudden  revolutions 
in  municipal  policy.  Both  of  these  tendencies  appear  to  be 
in  the  direction  of  better  and  more  stable  government. 

DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTIONS. 

In  the  earlier  history  of  our  cities  not  only  legislative  and 
executive,  but  also  judicial  functions,  were  often  united  in 
the  governing  body.  The  Mayor  and  aldermen  frequently 
possessed,  and  still  exercise  in  some  cities,  the  functions  of 
justices  of  the  peace  or  city  judges.  This  custom  also 
was  borrowed  from  English  usage.  There  was  an  early 
tendency  to  the  differentiation  of  judicial  functions,  which, 
in  our  larger  cities,  are  now  almost  always  relegated  to 
properly  constituted  courts  of  law.  Latterly  there  has  been 
a  decided  advance  in  the  differentiation  of  executive  and 
legislative  functions,  tending  to  make  the  Mayor  an  execu- 
tive officer  exclusively,  save  when  he  retains  the  veto  power 
as  a  check  on  hasty  legislation,  and  to  confine  the  council 
to  purely  legislative  duties.  In  some  instances  the  check 
upon  the  powers  formerly  exercised  by  the  council  has  been 
carried  so  far  as  to  render  it  almost  a  superfluous  feature  in 
our  municipal  machinery,  its  functions  being  vested  in 
commissions,  or  bestowed  upon  the  Mayor  or  heads  of  de- 
partments by  legislative  authority.  Though,  perhaps,  war- 
12 


168  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

ranted  to  some  extent  by  the  character — or  want  of  charac- 
ter— in  our  municipal  legislatures,  this  extreme  tendency  is 
unscientific,  autocratic,  and  unrepublican,  and  can  have 
only  a  local  and  temporary  justification  in  the  growth  of 
our  municipal  system.  The  differentiation  of  executive 
from  legislative  functions,  however,  seems  to  be  a  natural 
result  of  the  growing  complexity  of  our  civic  life  as  cities 
increase  in  size,  and  will,  doubtless,  continue  in  the  future. 

ABOLITION  OF  THE  BICAMERAL  SYSTEM. 

There  has  been  a  marked  tendency  in  recent  years  to  sim- 
plify the  legislative  machinery  in  our  city  governments  by 
the  abolition  of  the  bicameral  system.  This  system,  in  fact, 
was  always  local,  confined  mainly  to  certain  of  our  older 
States,  where  it  appears  to  have  been  copied  from  our  dual 
State  Legislatures.  These,  in  turn,  apparently  derived  it  from 
the  two  houses  of  the  British  Parliament.  In  pur  National 
Congress,  on  the  contrary,  the  growth  of  the  bicameral  sys- 
tem was  natural  and  inevitable.  The  Senate  of  the  United 
States  has  a  definite  status  and  meaning,  standing  as  it  does 
for  the  equal  autonomy  of  the  States  ;  and  the  debates  pre- 
ceding the  adoption  of  our  Federal  Constitution  show  that 
it  would  have  been  impossible  to  form  any  union  at  all 
except  by  the  introduction  of  this  feature  in  our  federal 
system.  In  the  city  government,  however,  the  two  houses 
are  cumbrous,  expensive,  and  an  impediment  to  legislation. 
I  can  not  learn  that  this  system  has  any  general  sanction  in 
Europe — certainly  not  in  England.  "  In  no  English  borough 
or  city,"  says  Prof.  Bryce,  "do  we  find  a  two-chambered 
legislature."  *  New  York  and  Brooklyn  formerly  had  their 
supernumerary  boards  of  assistant  alderman  ;  New  Orleans, 
Cincinnati  and  Cleveland,  Ohio,  Camden,  N.  J.,  and  other 
cities  once  governed  by  the  bicameral  system,  have  abolished 
the  second  board.  The  Mayor  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  last  year 
recommended  its  abolition  in  his  inaugural  message.  Quincy 
and  Waltham,  Mass.,  two  of  the  most  recently  incorporated 
cities  of  that  Commonwealth,  have  departed  from  the  ancient 
New  England  tradition  and  declined  to  be  burdened  with 
the  dual  legislature ;  while  the  mayors  of  Fall  River  and 
Brockton,  Mass. ;  Belfast,  Gardiner,  Hallowell,  and  Rockland, 
Me. ;  Manchester,  Dover,  and  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  and 
Scranton,  Reading,  and  Lebanon,  Pa.,  in  the  home  of  the 

*  The  American  Commonwealth,  vol.  i,  p.  596,  foot-note. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  109 

bicameral  system,  strongly  urge  its  abolition.  The  argu- 
ment usually  raised  in  its  behalf  is  that  one  house  acts  as  a 
check  upon  che  other  in  matters  of  hasty  legislation  and  un- 
wise expenditure.  For  this  reason,  as  a  protection  to  the 
tax-payer,  it  was  advocated  by  the  Tilden  Commission,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  Hon.  William  M.  Evarts.  In  fact, 
however,  the  opposition  of  the  two  houses  more  frequently 
appears  to  encourage  corrupt  bargaining  and  legislative  "  log- 
rolling." Together  with  the  power  of  confirming  appoint- 
ments vested  in  the  aldermen  or  council,  which  is  often 
similarly  abused,  it  seems  destined  to  disappear  in  the  future 
evolution  of  the  American  city.  When  we  reflect  that  the 
city  is  a  business  corporation  and  the  duty  of  its  government 
is  simply  to  administer  its  affairs  in  a  business-like  manner 
for  the  best  interests  of  the  citizens,  the  bicameral  system 
seems  a  superfluous  absurdity.  What  railroad  corporation, 
bank,  manufacturing  concern,  or  other  business  institution, 
would  ever  think  of  adopting  the  cumbrous  expedient  of  a 
dual  board  of  trustees  01  directors,  one  to  act  as  a  check 
upon  the  other  ?  The  prime  qualities  in  a  business  enter- 
prise are,  first,  responsibility  ;  second,  efficiency  ;  and  third, 
facility  in  effecting  results ;  and  these  are  the  qualities  we 
should  aim  to  establish  and  perpetuate  in  our  city  govern- 
ments. 

EXECUTIVE  EESPONSIBILITY. 

As  regards  the  executive  power,  the  tendency  is  more  and 
more  to  simplify  our  present  confused  methods,  to  make  the 
Mayor  directly  responsible  to  the  people,  and  invest  him  with 
the  full  authority  of  appointing  the  heads  of  departments, 
whose  terms  of  office  should  be  the  same  as  his  own.  Each 
department  should  have  but  a  single  head,  who  should  be 
held  responsible  for  the  action  of  his  subordinates.  The 
Mayor  and  councilmen  only  should  be  elected  by  popular 
vote.  The  Mayor  should  be  subject  to  impeachment  and 
removal  from  office  by  the  highest  court  of  the  municipality, 
on  presentation  of  the  council,  for  any  violation  of  law  or 
gross  abuse  of  his  prerogatives.  In  English  cities  the 
Mayor  never  possesses  the  veto  power,  nor  is  he  directly 
responsible  to  the  people.  He  is,  in  fact,  with  other  ex- 
ecutive officers,  the  creature  of  the  council,  which  con- 
trols the  city  as  Parliament  controls  the  nation,  with  no 
check  save  those  interferences  that  Parliament  itself  im- 
poses. These  are  often  sufficiently  serious,  claiming  as  it 


y' 
I  w€ 

lU  Ml  w  r  n  o  « t-  \* 


170  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

does  the  right  to  dictate  the  terms  of  contract  with  private 
corporations — as  in  the  matter  of  street  illumination — and 
to  bestow  independent  powers  of  legislation  on  the  boards 
of  trade.  Our  experience  is,  I  think,  confirmatory  of  the 
wisdom  of  giving  the  veto  power  to  the  Mayor,  and  of  so 
defining  it  that  he  may  veto  a  particular  objectionable  feat- 
ure in  a  public  ordinance  or  law  without  imperiling  the 
entire  enactment.  This  is  in  harmony  with  our  general 
theory  of  government,  which,  while  guaranteeing  plenary 
powers,  limited  only  by  the  terms  of  the  organic  law,  implies 
a  direct  responsibility  to  the  people.  This  system  is  really 
more  democratic  than  one  which  multiplies  elective  officers, 
and  divides  and  dissipates  responsibility. 

APPOINTMENT  AND  TENURE  OF  SUBORDINATE  OFFICIALS. 

The  recognition  of  the  city  as  a  business  corporation,  to  be 
administered  on  business  principles,  also  implies  the  selection 
of  clerks  and  subordinate  officials  for  character  and  compe- 
tency as  a  merchant  would  choose  his  employes,  instead  of 
their  appointment  as  a  reward  for  political  services.  This  sys- 
tem has  made  great  advances  in  recent  years,  though  we  are 
still  far  from  its  general  recognition.  Such  appointments 
should  be  made  under  sensible  and  practical  civil-service 
regulations,  having  due  regard  for  character  and  special 
qualification  for  the  duties  to  be  undertaken,  as  well  as  for 
general  intelligence.  Subordinate  officials  should  hold  office 
during  good  behavior,  being  responsible  to  the  heads  of  their 
respective  departments,  and  removable  by  them  for  cause. 
Surliness  of  demeanor,  and  lack  of  promptness,  politeness, 
and  accommodation  in  serving  the  public — virtues  now  con- 
spicuously lacking  in  officials  possessing  a  political  "  pull  "- 
should  constitute  an  all-sufficient  cause  for  removal.  The 
civil  service  of  the  city  would  thus  open  up  a  worthy  career 
for  all  ambitious  to  enter  it — a  life-work  as  secure  in  its 
tenure  as  that  offered  in  mercantile  or  professional  occupa- 
tions, instead  of  being,  as  now,  an  asylum  for  decayed  poli- 
ticians. 

DIVORCE  OF  MUNICIPAL    FROM  STATE  AND  NATIONAL 
POLITICS. 

Heretofore  our  elections  for  municipal  officers  have  usual- 
ly been  conducted  by  means  of  the  partisan  machinery  of 


TJie  Problem  of  City  Government.  171 

national  politics.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  qualifica- 
tions for  the  position  of  mayor  or  alderman  do  not  depend 
at  all  upon  the  judgment  of  the  candidates  concerning 
national  political  issues.  "  When  the  true  essence  and 
meaning  of  the  modern  city  shall  be  generally  compre- 
hended," says  Prof.  Levermore,  "  there  will  be  a  wondrous 
reformation  in  city  administration.  A  mayor  will  be  chosen 
as  a  railway  corporation  chooses  its  superintendent — for 
good  character  and  business  ability — and  there  will  be  no 
more  attention  paid  to  his  views  about  the  tariff  or  States' 
rights  than  to  his  opinion  concerning  predestination  and 
original  sin."  •  The  increasing  independence  of  our  voters 
in  municipal  elections  shows,  I  think,  a  distinct  tendency 
toward  the  recognition  of  this  common- sense  principle, 
though  we  are  far  enough  yet  from  its  complete  realization. 
We  shall  always  have  a  politics  of  the  municipality  as  well 
as  of  the  nation,  and  we  shall  have  parties  in  our  municipal 
contests ;  but  the  diverse  issues  of  national  and  city  policy 
should  be  kept  entirely  distinct.  With  this  end  in  view,  city 
elections  should  be  held  at  a  different  date  from  State  and 
national  elections.  The  obvious  objection  to  this  proposition 
is  the  cost  of  holding  an  additional  election,  but  these  need 
not  occur  oftener  than  biennially,  and  the  result,  I  think, 
would  be  worth  all  it  cost.  This  complete  divorce  of  muni- 
cipal from  national  politics  would  do  much  to  break  up  the 
disgraceful  deals  and  wholesale  trading  of  votes  between 
political  bosses  and  machines  which  have  so  often  disgraced 
our  elections,  f  While  we  must  continue,  perforce,  to  use 
the  machinery  of  national  politics  in  our  city  elections,  the 
salvation  of  our  municipalities  lies  mainly  with  the  inde- 
pendent voter.  All  which  has  thus  far  been  gained  in  this 
country  for  pure  government  in  our  cities  has  been  gained 
by  the  action  of  the  independent  voter.  To  cultivate  the 
spirit  of  independence  in  men  of  all  parties — to  induce  them 
to  work  outside  the  machines,  carefully  avoiding  third-party 
affiliations,  for  common  patriotic  ends,  thus  finally  forcing 
the  machines  to  accept  the  policy  of  reform,  and  ultimately 
to  commit  felo  de  se  for  lack  of  the  spoils  of  office — should 
be  the  endeavor  of  all  the  earnest  friends  of  municipal  prog- 
ress. 

*  "  To  elect  a  city  magistrate  because  he  is  a  Republican  or  a  Democrat  is 
about  as  sensible  as  to  elect  him  because  he  believes  in  homoeopathy  or  has  a 
taste  for  chrysanthemums.11 — John  Fiske,  in  Civil  Government. 

t  "  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  degradation  of  so  many  English  boroughs  and 
cities  during  the  Tudor  and  Stuart  periods  was  chiefly  due  to  the  encroachment 
of  national  politics  on  city  politics.11— Ibid.,  p.  135. 


172  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

RESTORATION  OF  HOME  RULE. 

The  tendencies  thus  outlined  and  already  at  work,  though 
far  from  complete  realization,  are  all,  I  think,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  a  business-like,  economical,  non-partisan  municipal 
system.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  attainment  of  this  end, 
however,  we  must  say  to  the  State  :  "  Hands  off ! "  and  de- 
mand and  secure  the  privilege  of  working  out  our  own 
municipal  salvation,  free  from  the  petty  interference  of 
charter  tinkering,  special  legislation,  and  the  bucolic  admin- 
istration of  city  affairs.  To  this  end,  all  special  legislation 
for  cities,  including  the  granting  of  charters,  should  be  for- 
bidden by  constitutional  amendments,  as  in  the  case  of  other 
corporations  organized  under  general  laws.  The  Legis- 
lature of  New  York  adopted,  I  believe,  some  three  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  pages  of  amendments  to  city  charters,  and 
other  special  legislation  for  cities  and  villages,  during  the 
session  of  1890.*  This  constitutes  fully  one  third  of  the 
entire  legislation  for  the  year.  It  ought  to  be  engaged  in 
better  and  more  appropriate  business.  The  State  Legislatures 
should  be  authorized  to  pass  enabling  acts  for  the  incorpo- 
ration of  cities,  whose  provisions  should  be  general  in  their 
character  and  sufficiently  flexible  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  different  localities  and  populations,  permitting  each  city, 
under  certain  uniform  conditions,  to  create  its  own  adminis- 
trative machinery.  The  right  of  local  self-government  should 
be  distinctly  recognized,  and,  if  necessary,  guaranteed  by 
constitutional  provision.  The  change  from  State  to  local 
control  in  municipal  administration  is  in  the  direction 
of  true  progress  as  indicated  by  the  social  philosophy  of 
evolution,  tending  as  it  does  toward  the  liberation  of  the  in- 
dividual and  community  from  the  minute  supervision  of  the 
central  governmental  authority.  Local  self-government  is 
alone  consistent  with  the  preservation  of  individual  liberty. 

CONVENTION  FOE  CONSULTATION:  A  SUGGESTION. 

To  secure  as  far  as  practicable  a  uniform  system,  the  wisest 
possible  in  its  provisions,  for  the  incorporation  and  govern- 
ment of  cities,  a  general  convention  might  be  called  to  which 
each  State  and  each  city  containing  upward  of  ten  thousand 
inhabitants  should  be  entitled  to  send  a  delegate.  These 

*  Relating  to  cities,  207  pages  ;  to  incorporated  villages,  150  pages.  (Statutes 
of  1890.) 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  173 

delegates  should  include  the  most  careful  students  of  the 
science  of  government,  as  well  as  a  fair  proportion  of  practi- 
cal business  men,  so  that  the  best  thought  of  the  time  may 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  problem.  Their  consultation 
should  be  deliberate,  taking  into  consideration  all  the  complex 
features  of  our  municipal  life ;  and  their  final  recommenda- 
tions would  doubtless  have  great  weight  when  properly 
brought  before  our  State  Legislatures,  provided  that  the 
natural  laws  of  development  were  recognized  in  their  inves- 
tigations and  in  the  formulation  of  their  conclusions.  This, 
however,  is  merely  a  suggestion  by  the  way.  I  have  no  ex- 
pectation that  this  question  can  be  finally  settled  in  caucus 
or  convention.  Such  an  assembly  would  be  chiefly  useful 
in  concentrating  public  attention  and  as  a  mode  of  public 
education. 

SUFFRAGE  :  MINORITY  REPRESENTATION  ;  THE  PROPERTY 
QUALIFICATION. 

Whatever  may  be  the  future  form  of  our  city  government, 
in  regulating  the  choice  of  aldermen  or  councilmen,  some 
well-considered  plan  of  minority  representation  is  exceedingly 
desirable,  if  it  be  not  an  absolute  necessity.  The  selection 
of  these  representatives  should  be  taken  out  of  the  corrupt 
stream  of  ward  politics,  and  an  opportunity  should  be 
given  for  the  choice  of  at  least  an  influential  minority  of 
intelligent  and  incorruptible  men.  The  proposition  to 
limit  the  number  and  improve  the  quality  of  the  electors 
for  city  officers  through  a  property  qualification  seems 
to  me  both  unwise  and  impracticable ;  nor  is  any  tendency 
in  this  direction  observable  in  our  politics.  It  is  un- 
wise because  it  creates  a  new  class  of  irresponsible  citizens 
outside  the  body  politic,  whereas  our  salvation  from  political 
evils  lies  in  increasing  direct  individual  responsibility  among 
all  classes  of  the  people.  Wendell  Phillips  may  not  have 
been  always  a  safe  counselor  in  public  affairs,  but  his  asser- 
tion that  "  an  ignorant  body  of  voters  is  a  dangerous  class  in 
the  community,  but  a  similar  body  disfranchised  is  more 
dangerous,"  seems  to  me  a  sound  bit  of  political  wisdom. 
An  extension  of  suffrage  under  our. form  of  government,  as 
universal  experience  shows,  is  an  evolution  which  never  goes 
backward.  A  class  once  enfranchised  can  never  be  disfran- 
chised save  by  a  revolution  which  would  produce  greater 
evils  than  it  would  be  designed  to  cure.  The  steady  tend- 


174  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

ency  in  this  country  is  toward  the  abolition  of  property 
qualifications,  as  recently  shown  in  Ehode  Island.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  has  not  been  found  a  protection  against  the 
prevalent  evils  of  municipal  administration.  Historically, 
as  Prof.  Jameson  has  shown,  it  is  a  relic  of  the  period  of 
Edward  VI  of  England,  where  it  was  introduced  with  the 
express  object  of  creating  a  social  distinction  between  the 
rich  and  the  poor.  In  this  country  some  qualification  of  this 
kind  was  formerly  quite  general ;  now  it  is  exceedingly  rare.* 
In  England,  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  though  some 
such  restriction  still  generally  prevails,  there  has  been  a  con- 
stant tendency  in  recent  years  toward  the  widening  of  the 
franchise  in  the  direction  of  manhood  suffrage,  thus  far  with 
no  evil  results. 

In  his  recent  lecture  before  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  President  Low,  of  Columbia  University,  than 
whom  we  have  no  more  conscientious  and  conservative 
student  of  city  government,  declared  that  since  1850  there 
had  been  a  marked  advance  in  the  city  of  New  York  in 
many  respects.  The  present  charter,  he  says,  is  a  great 
improvement  on  previous  ones.  Substantially  the  same 
causes  of  complaint  existed  forty  years  ago  as  now,  some  of 
them  in  an  aggravated  form.  "  It  was  popular,"  he  said, 
"  to  attribute  the  shortcomings  of  the  city  government  to  two 
things — universal  suffrage  and  immigration.  Yet  in  1850 
there  was  not  universal  suffrage.  It  could  be  stated  that  the 
government  of  the  city,  resting  on  restricted  suffrage,  was 
not  satisfactory  at  a  period  when  immigration  had  not  con- 
tributed anything  to  the  result.  There  had  been  great  im- 
provement since  1850  in  the  matter  of  elections.  Repeating 
had  been  largely  put  down."  f  The  judgment  of  this  wise 
and  careful  observer  agrees  with  my  own,  based  on  a  resi- 
dence in  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn  of  more  than 
half  the  period  covered  by  his  survey.  Mr.  Emerson  says 
that  "  at  short  distances  the  senses  are  despotic."  An  acute 
sense  of  present  ills  often  prevents  us  from  recognizing  the 
actual  progress  that  has  been  made.  The  condition  of  things 
in  New  York  at  the  present  day  is  hardly  as  bad  as  that  in 
Philadelphia,  but  even  in  the  latter  city  it  is  doubtful 
whether  it  is  worse  than  it  was  formerly.  Before  the  adop- 

*  The  property-qualification  may  yet  have  some  raison  d'etre  in  our  South- 
ern States,  and  in  communities  possessing  large  illiterate  populations  ;  yet  even 
here  a  proper  educational  qualification  will  usually  be  more  just  and  equally 
effective. 

tN.Y.  Times  Report. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  175 

tion  of  manhood  suffrage  there  was  great  political  corruption 
in  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love.  It  was  the  common  practice, 
we  are  told,  for  the  members  of  the  Council  to  award  all 
lucrative  contracts  to  themselves.* 

The  educational  influence  of  the  ballot  and  the  political 
campaign  is  great  and  beneficent,  even  on  the  most  unin- 
telligent voters,  and  I  am  not  yet  prepared  to  declare  man- 
hood suffrage  a  failure  in  our  cities.  England  has  gone  a 
step  beyond  us  in  one  respect,  granting  municipal  suffrage  to 
women  who  are  single  or  heads  of  families  on  the  same  terms 
as  men ;  and  it  is  noticeable  that  Mr.  Spencer,  though  tak- 
ing a  conservative  and  somewhat  pessimistic  view  of  this 
whole  question,  and  deprecating  the  extension  of  parlia- 
mentary suffrage  to  women,  carefully  excludes  the  municipal 
suffrage  from  the  range  of  his  objection,  f  I  can  not  learn 
that  any  party  in  England  favors  the  withdrawal  of  this 
privilege.  The  presence  of  intelligent  women  on  our 
school  boards,  also,  can  but  have  the  most  beneficent  results. 
When  our  public  schools  are  happily  removed  from  the  con- 
taminating control  of  politics,  women  will  doubtless  find 
their  proper  place  and  influence  in  their  management,  as 
they  already  have  in  many  of  our  cities. 

LIMITATIONS  OF  THE  CITY'S  CORPORATE  FUNCTIONS. 

With  the  recognition  of  the  city  government  as  a  business 
corporation,  and  the  readjustment  of  our  municipal  politics 
in  accordance  with  this  idea,  certain  questions  of  a  practical 
character  bearing  upon  the  proper  limitation  of  its  corpo- 
rate functions  will  doubtless  press  forward  for  consideration. 
Indeed,  they  are  already  clamoring  for  attention.  Should 
the  city  own  its  own  plants  and  conduct  its  own  work  in 
the  matters  of  public  illumination,  street-cleaning,  the  con- 
trol of  street-railroads,  etc.,  or  should  it  assign  these  duties 
to  private  corporations  and  individuals  ?  Under  the  preva- 
lent methods  of  machine  politics,  municipal  rings,  and  gen- 
eral maladministration  of  public  affairs  there  are  grave  ob- 
jections to  the  enlargement  of  the  office-holding  constitu- 
ency, and  abundant  grounds  for  assuming  that  the  public 
would  be  best  served  by  private  contractors,  provided  their 
selection  can  be  fairly  secured,  without  party  favoritism  or 

*See  Philadelphia:  a  History  of  Municipal  Development.  By  E.  P.  Allinson 
and  Boies  Penrose  (Johns  Hopkins  University  Pamphleta). 

t  Justice.  Chapters  on  The  Rights  of  Women  and  The  Constitution  of  the 
State. 


176  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

official  participation  in  the  spoils  of  the  public  service,  and 
provided  also  that  they  render  a  proper  compensation  to 
the  city  for  their  privileges.  With  the  reform  of  our  ad- 
ministrative methods  and  the  purification  of  our  civil  serv- 
ice, however,  this  particular  objection  would  be  removed. 
The  solution  of  these  questions  would  be  left  for  decision 
in  the  court  of  experience.  The  Spencerian  evolutionist,  on 
general  principles,  is  in  favor  of  leaving  public  service  as 
far  as  possible  to  individual  enterprise.  He  holds  with 
Prof.  Grunton  that  government  "  should  be  the  guardian  of 
the  interests  of  the  community  without  assuming  business 
responsibility."  The  average  citizen,  however,  cares  little 
for  theory;  his  judgment  is  influenced  mainly  by  ascer- 
tained experiential  data.  Under  the  law  of  relativity,  even 
the  evolutionary  sociologist  can  hardly  object  to  the  rigid 
application  of  such  tests. 

MUNICIPAL  LIGHTING.    IMPOKTANT  FACTS  AND 
STATISTICS. 

According  to  statistics  gathered  by  Mr.  Sylvester  Baxter, 
of  Boston,  and  the  Advance  Club  of  Providence,  R.  I.,*  an 
organization  which  has  no  partisan  bias  or  other  interest 
than  that  of  promoting  the  true  welfare  of  that  city,  the  ex- 
perience of  twenty-four  American  cities  which  own  and  con- 
trol their  electric-lighting  plants,  as  compared  with  one 
hundred  and  thirty-one  representative  cities  which  are 
served  by  private  corporations,  shows  that  the  cost  by  the 
former  method  is  only  about  one  half  the  price  paid  for  pri- 
vate service.  These  figures,  however,  have  been  vigorously 
contested  by  Mr.  M.  J.  Francisco,  in  a  paper  read  before 
the  National  Electric  Light  Association,  f  Mr.  Francisco 
claims  that  important  items  in  the  cost,  including  interest 
on  the  value  of  the  plant,  annual  depreciation,  salary  of  ne- 
cessary employes,  etc.,  have  been  omitted  in  the  statistics 
furnished  by  cities  owning  their  own  plants ;  and  that  a  fair 
estimate,  based  on  records  obtained  from  fifty  cities,  includ- 
ing all  or  nearly  all  those  quoted  by  Mr.  Baxter,  and  more 
than  as  many  more,  shows  that  the  expense  of  public  man- 
agement is  at  least  as  great  as  that  for  private  service.  Mr. 
Francisco's  estimates  for  Chicago,  where  the  system  of  mu- 
nicipal lighting  prevails,  were,  however,  at  once  denounced 

*  See  Advance  Club  Leaflets,  Nos.  1,  2,  and  3. 
t  See  Report  in  Electrical  World,  August  30, 1890. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  177 

as  unreliable  by  Prof.  John  P.  Barrett  of  that  city,  an  elec- 
trician of  eminence  and  a  gentleman  of  acknowledged  prob- 
ity. Due  allowance  should  be  made  for  the  natural  bias  of 
professional  electricians,  not  in  the  employ  pf  a  municipal- 
ity, against  the  system  of  public  lighting,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  for  the  fact  that  the  pleas  in  its  favor  are  usually 
urged  by  gentlemen  who  have  no  practical  experience  in 
electrical  affairs,  and  who  may  be  influenced  by  a  socialistic 
bias.* 

Statistics,  apparently  reliable,  show  that  in  Great  Britain 
about  two  hundred  municipalities  manufacture  their  own 
illuminating  gas,  and  cities  like  Birmingham  and  Manches- 
ter reap  a  profit  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  a 
year  from  private  consumers,  besides  giving  them  extremely 
cheap  gas,  and  securing  free  illumination  for  municipal 
purposes.  In  Glasgow,  private  consumers  are  furnished 
with  excellent  gas  at  sixty-six  cents  per  thousand  feet,  while 
that  city  not  only  lights  its  public  thoroughfares,  but  also, 
as  a  police  measure,  all  common  halls  and  stairways  in  tene- 
ment-houses, at  small  expense.  In  Berlin  "  the  municipal 
gas-works  yielded,  at  last  accounts,"  says  Mr.  Baxter,  "  some- 
thing like  eighteen  per  cent  of  the  entire  annual  expendi- 
ture of  the  city  as  a  profit."  f  In  Great  Britain,  where  the 
cities  are  dependent  on  special  acts  of  Parliament  for  the 
authority  to  own  and  conduct  their  gas  and  electric  plants, 
and  where  Parliament,  by  special  legislation,  minutely 
specifies  the  conditions  under  which  they  shall  deal  with  pri- 
vate corporations,  it  is  said  that  gas-owning  municipalities 
are  unduly  slow  in  introducing  electricity  or  other  improve- 
ments. |  As  to  the  relative  economy  of  public  and  private 
ownership,  however,  the  accessible  evidence  seems  to  bear 
strongly  on  the  side  of  public  ownership. 

CONTROL  OF  STREET  RAILWAYS. 

The  control  of  the  city  over  its  streets  and  public  thor- 
oughfares also  implies  the  right  to  own  and  control  the 
street  railroads,  if  this  system  is  found  to  be  more  satisfac- 
tory and  economical  than  that  of  grants  to  private  corpora- 
tions. If  the  latter  method  is  preferred,  however,  for  theo- 
retical or  other  reasons,  the  contracting  corporations  should 

*  Mr.  Baxter,  we  are  informed,  is  an  ardent  "  Nationalist,11  or  advocate  of  the 
socialistic  theories  of  Mr.  Edward  Bellamy. 

t  Berlin  :  a  Municipal  Study.    By  Sylvester  Baxter, 
t  A  Plea  for  Liberty. 


178  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

pay  the  city  well  for  their  privileges.  This  all  experience 
shows  that  they  are  abundantly  able  to  do.  No  repetition 
of  the  Broadway  railroad  steal  should  be  tolerated  for  a  mo- 
ment in  any  American  city.  In  Toronto,  Canada,  where 
about  seventy  miles  of  street  railroads  are  in  operation,  the 
contractors  are  bound  to  pay  the  city  $800  per  mile  for 
every  mile  of  single  track,  and  $1,600  per  mile  for  every 
mile  of  double  track  operated,  in  lieu  of  which  amount  the 
contractors  voluntarily  offered  the  city  the  gross  sum  of 
$136,000  per  year ;  and,  in  addition,  they  are  also  bound  to 
pay  the  city  eight  per  cent  on  their  gross  receipts  up  to 
$1,000,000  per  annum;  ten  per  cent  between  $1,000,000 
and  $1,500,000  ;  twelve  per  cent  between  $1,500,000  and 
$2,000,000  ;  fifteen  per  cent  between  $2,000,000  and  $3,000,- 
000 ;  and  twenty  per  cent  on  all  receipts  above  $3,000,000 
per  annum. 

Some  European  cities  own  the  railroad  tracks,  and  lease 
them  to  corporations  running  the  cars ;  in  this  way,  by  the 
conditions  of  the  lease,  controlling  the  paving,  cleaning,  and 
care  of  the  streets,  preventing  overcrowding  in  the  cars,  and 
limiting  the  fares  in  the  interest  of  the  public. 

THE  SEWAGE  PROBLEM  AND  OUR  FOOD  SUPPLY  ;  START- 
LING FACTS. 

The  question  of  the  care  and  disposal  of  the  public  sew- 
age is  also  one  of  immense  practical  importance,  not  only 
to  the  city,  but  likewise  to  the  surrounding  agricultural  dis- 
tricts. Here,  indeed,  we  strike  down  to  those  general  laws 
which  affect  the  welfare  of  the  whole  community,  laws 
which  are  physical  and  biological,  as  well  as  local  and  socio- 
logical, in  their  character.  Under  the  methods  at  present 
prevailing  in  this  country,  as  Mr.  Skilton  has  shown,  our 
cities  are  rapidly  exhausting  the  resources  of  the  land,  and 
this  in  turn  compels  an  abnormal  flow  of  population  from 
the  country  to  the  city.  That  which  should  be  returned  to 
the  soil  for  its  enrichment  is  emptied  into  rivers,  contami- 
nating the  sources  of  our  water  and  ice  supply  and  propa- 
gating the  germs  of  disease,  or  into  the  ocean,  where  its 
effects,  if  less  injurious,  are  still  ruinously  wasteful.  This 
is  unquestionably  true,  though  it  may  be  a  fact,  as  Prof. 
Atwater  claims,*  that  to  some  extent  sea- vegetation  is  nour- 

*  The  Food  Supply  of  the  Future.  By  W.  O.  Atwater.  Century,  November, 
1891. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  179 

ished  thereby,  and  this,  becoming  the  nutrition  of  fishes, 
improves  our  food  supply  derived  from  the  seas ;  while  some 
portion  of  the  free  nitrogenous  elements  may  be,  as  he  as- 
serts, restored  to  the  soil  through  the  atmosphere. 

So  abundant  are  the  resources  of  Nature,  when  supple- 
mented by  the  aid  of  chemistry,  that  I  have  no  apprehension 
of  any  immediate  impending  danger  of  a  complete  failure 
of  our  food  supply ;  but  the  abandonment  of  farms  in  New 
England,  in  our  own  State,  and  even  in  communities  far- 
ther West,  on  account  of  the  exhaustion  of  the  soil,  and 
the  still  greater  evils  of  this  sort  notoriously  exemplified  in 
the  South,  as  graphically  described  by  Prof.  Mason  and  Mr. 
Skilton,*  should  warn  us  against  all  unnecessary  waste. 
Nor  are  these  local  effects  the  most  serious  evidences  that 
this  exhaustion  is  already  bearing  heavily  on  the  vitality 
and  prosperity  of  our  people.  Dr.  Milner  Fothergill,  in  his 
suggestive  monograph  on  The  Town  Dweller,  calls  attention 
to  the  physical  deterioration  of  people  living  in  cities,  which 
in  the  second  and  third  generation  induces  an  actual  in- 
heritance of  impaired  vitality.  And  Prof.  Atwater,  a  com- 
petent chemist  who  has  thoroughly  investigated  this  ques- 
tion, traces  much  of  this  deterioration  to  the  sources  of  our 
food  supply  By  estimates,  founded  on  numerous  experi- 
ments, he  assures  us  that,  by  reason  of  the  exhaustion  of 
nitrogenous  elements  from  the  soil,  all  our  grains  and  food- 
products  grown  in  this  country  have  actually  deteriorated 
from  twenty-five  to  forty  per  cent  or  more  in  their  proteins 
or  tissue-making  elements,  as  compared  with  similar  prod- 
ucts of  the  soil  grown  in  European  countries.  This  entails 
a  like  deterioration  in  our  meat  supplies,  and  also  in 
our  own  bodily  tissues.  This  is  surely  a  matter  of  supreme 
importance  to  the  present  and  future  populations  of  both 
city  and  country.  That  this  waste  can  be  prevented  by  the 
imposition  of  tariffs  or  export  taxes,  as  Mr.  Skilton  argues, 
I  do  not  believe,  since  his  method  fails  unless  the  products 
of  the  soil  are  actually  consumed  and  their  fertilizing  ex- 
creta deposited  in  situ.  This  is,  of  course,  utterly  imprac- 
ticable. The  remedy  must  be  sought  in  other  and  more  scien- 
tific ways,  as  it  has  been  sought  and  discovered  in  Europe. 

In  the  city  of  Glasgow,  which  owns  its  sewage  plant  and 
conducts  its  own  street-cleaning  and  sewerage  service,  a 

*  The  Land  Problem.  A  Lecture  before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.  By 
Prof.  Otis  T.  Mason,  Curator  of  the  Department  of  Ethnology  in  the  National 
Museum,  Washington,  D.  C.,  with  discussion  by  James  A.  Skilton  and  others. 


180  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

considerable  revenue  is  derived  from  the  sale  of  manures, 
obtained  from  these  sources,  to  farmers  twenty  miles  around ; 
by  this  means  the  fertilizing  elements  are  restored  to  the 
neighboring  soil,  and  the  cost  of  this  entire  service,  in  a 
city  of  over  600,000  inhabitants,  is  reduced  to  about  $190,- 
000  a  year,  or  thirty-five  cents  per  capita*  Brooklyn  pays 
rather  more  than  three  times  as  much,  and  New  York  eight 
times  as  much,  according  to  recent  statistics,  f  for  the  same 
service  performed  in  a  vastly  inferior  manner,  and  with  no 
precaution  against  this  destructive  waste.  The  comparison 
between  our  own  and  many  continental  cities  would  be  simi- 
larly instructive.  Such  facts  should  put  our  American  cities 
to  shame,  and  spur  us  forward  to  better  things. 

STATE  SOCIALISM;  METHODS  OF  TAXATION. 

However  it  may  be  in  England,  where  the  conditions  of 
parliamentary  control  and  interference  greatly  modify  the 
problem,  as  is  shown  by  the  writers  in  A  Plea  for  Liberty, 
in  our  own  country  the  recognition  of  the  right  of  the 
municipality  to  control  its  own  gas  and  electric  systems,  its 
street  railroads,  and  its  sewage  plants,  should  not  necessarily 
be  regarded  as  a  step  in  the  direction  of  state  socialism, 
when  compared  with  existing  methods.  Our  present  system 
is  not  uniformly  one  of  contract  with  competent  parties  under 
free  competition,  but  often  of  special  privileges  exclusively 
granted  to  private  corporations  which  have  a  political  "  pull, ' 
generally  with  no  adequate  compensation  to  the  public,  whose 
servants  they  are.  The  change  would  simply  involve  the 
resumption  by  the  citizens  of  their  individual  and  corporate 
rights  as  against  private  corporate  monopolies.  Neverthe- 
less, the  consistent  evolutionist  looks  askance  upon  all  propo- 
sitions for  the  assumption  of  public  control  over  matters 
which  can  properly  be  left  to  private  enterprise.  This  en- 
tire question  should  be  scientifically  investigated  in  all  its 
aspects,  with  reference  to  the  ultimate  as  well  as  the  imme- 
diate effects  of  public  ownership,  before  this  policy  is  finally 
determined  upon. 

There  is  no  reason  why,  even  under  our  present  methods, 
many  existing  evils  should  not  be  speedily  abated ;  why,  for 
example,  our  streets  should  not  be  cleaned,  and  ashes  and 
garbage  removed  from  our  houses,  exclusively  by  night ;  nor 

*  Glasgow  :  a  Municipal  Study.    By  Albert  Shaw.    Century,  March,  1890. 
t  See  Census  Bulletin  No.  82,  issued  June  22, 1891. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  181 

why  this  service  should  not  be  as  well  done  in  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  as  it  is  in  Glasgow  and  Berlin.  Nor  is  there 
any  excuse  for  the  continuance  of  our  present  crude  and 
inequitable  methods  of  municipal  taxation.  There  surely 
should  be  sufficient  civic  and  financial  wisdom  to  invent  an 
equitable  method  of  levying  and  collecting  taxes  in  place  of 
the  unjust  methods  now  in  vogue.  Every  one  familiar  with 
our  system  of  taxing  personal  property  knows  that  its  re- 
sults are  farcically  inequitable ;  it  is  scarcely  better,  in  fact, 
than  a  legalized  system  of  blackmail  on  those  who  are  hon- 
est enough  and  innocent  enough  to  make  true  returns  of 
their  taxable  property.  Great  abuses  have  also  arisen  in 
conne  ction  with  the  forced  sale  of  real  estate  for  the  non- 
payment of  taxes.  The  abuses  of  taxation  on  personal 
property  place  a  strong  argument  in  the  mouths  of  the  ad- 
vocates of  the  single  tax  on  land  values,  which  at  least  has 
the  merit  of  simplicity,  and  ease  and  certainty  of  assess- 
ment It  appears  to  be  open,  however,  to  grave  objections 
on  the  score  of  equity  as  applied  to  municipal  taxation. 
Mr.  Potts  has  shown  from  statistics,  the  accuracy  of  which 
has  not  been  successfully  questioned,  that  it  would  bear  with 
unjust  severity  on  the  poorer  classes  in  our  cities,  since  the 
ratio  of  the  value  of  improvements  to  that  of  the  land  is 
greater  in  the  wealthy  than  in  the  poorer  neighborhoods.* 
Some  system  more  equitable  and  economical  than  the 
present,  however,  is  surely  devisable.  The  whole  subject 
of  municipal  taxation  needs  thorough  scientific  analysis  and 
investigation. 

INDIVIDUAL  CHARACTER  AND  GOOD  CITIZENSHIP. 

Looking  deeper  than  all  these  questions  of  civic  machin- 
ery and  administrative  methods,  we  are  thrown  back  at  last 
upon  the  more  serious  and  fundamental  problem  of  the  best 
ways  of  developing  the  physique,  intelligence,  character,  and 
conscience  of  the  individual  citizen.  The  poorest  system 
will  yield  reasonably  satisfactory  results  under  a  wise,  intel- 
ligent, and  conscientious  administration,  and  the  best  will 
fail  under  a  corrupt  administration.  How  to  get  good  pub- 
lic servants  is  our  most  serious  difficulty,  and  back  of  this  is 

*  These  statistics  are  derived  from  Boston  and  other  Massachusetts  cities,  where 
tlic  value  of  the  land  is  estimated  separately  from  that  of  the  improvements. 
This  system  of  ass.-ssmrnt  should  be  introduced  everywhere.  See  Evolution  and 
Social  Reform  :  the  Socialistic  Method.  By  William  Potts,  in  Brooklyn  Ethical 
Association  Lectures  on  Sociology. 


182  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

the  prime  necessity  of  getting  good  citizens,  actively  inter- 
ested in  public  affairs.  Our  problem  is  unquestionably  ren- 
dered more  serious  than  that  of  European  cities  by  the 
rapidity  with  which  our  city  populations  change,  through 
immigration,  which  introduces  a  vast  foreign  element,  often 
ignorant  and  debased,  always  unacquainted  with  our  modes 
of  thought  and  life  and  with  our  political  institutions,  and 
also  from  other  causes.  It  may  be  said  with  truth,  however, 
that  if  our  intelligent,  well-to-do  American-born  citizens 
took  a  vital  interest  in  public  affairs,  the  desired  reforma- 
tion of  abuses  might  be  speedily  accomplished  in  spite  of 
this  difficulty.  It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  they  do  not,  as  a 
rule,  manifest  such  an  interest.  This,  as  Dr.  Andrews  as- 
sured us,*  is  the  most  serious  form  of  anarchism  which  we 
have  to  combat — far  more  serious  than  the  anarchism, 
the  ignorance,  or  the  depravity  of  the  foreign-born  popula- 
tion. What  is  the  cause  of  this  apathy  of  the  well-to-do 
citizen  ?  Where  shall  we  look  for  its  cure  ? 

THE  CITY  AXD  THE  STATE  :  HOME  EULE  AS  A  CUKE  FOR 
APATHY. 

This  apathy,  as  it  relates  to  municipal  aifairs,  is  doubtless 
in  part  due  to  a  serious  defect  in  our  system — to  the  fact 
that  the  city  is  the  creature  and  puppet  of  the  State,  practi- 
cally deprived  of  its  right  of  self-government.  It  must 
appeal  like  a  pauper  to  the  State  Legislature  for  privileges 
which  every  New  England  town  enjoys  as  a  fundamental 
right.  Its  citizens  have  no  guaranteed  security  for  home 
rule,  no  opportunity  for  direct  criticism  and  discussion  of 
municipal  policies,  no  real  responsibility  for  the  manage- 
ment of  their  own  aifairs.  The  vitality  of  our  American 
system  resides  in  the  immediate  contact  of  the  voter  with 
the  problems  of  local  government,  as  in  the  New  England 
town  meeting.  This  makes  him  directly  responsible  for 
results,  and  educates  him  for  the  duties  of  citizenship.  So 
long  as  the  State  possesses  the  power  of  charter-tinkering 
and  constant  interference  with  the  city's  affairs,  so  long  as 
our  political  machines  usurp  the  proper  functions  of  the  in- 
dividual, this  direct  influence  and  responsibility  of  the 
citizen  is  impossible.  Our  municipal  affairs  are,  therefore, 
at  the  mercy  of  partisan  cliques  and  rings,  often  operating 

*  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.  A  Lecture  before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Associ- 
ation, by  E.  B.  Andrews,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Brown  University. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  183 

at  the  State  capital,  remote  from  the  surveillance  of  the 
citizen.     The  intelligent  voter  sees  this  and  is  discouraged. 

LEGALIZED  PKIMABIES  AND  WARD  COUNCILS. 

The  constitutional  guarantee  of  local  self-government 
which  I  have  already  recommended  should,  therefore,  be 
supplemented  by  the  legalization  of  the  primary  assembly 
at  which  nominations  are  made,  throwing  around  the  voter 
in  the  preliminary  caucus  and  convention,  as  well  as  at  the 
polls,  the  protection  of  the  secret  official  ballot.  Every  pos- 
sible moral  influence  and  increase  of  responsibility  in  govern- 
mental methods  should  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  voter  to 
induce  him  to  take 'an  active  interest  in  public  affairs.  In 
Berlin  citizens  are  fined  or  imprisoned  for  declination  of 
office.  This,  however,  is  a  feature  of  the  dominant  mili- 
tantism  in  European  cities  which  Americans  would  not,  and 
evolutionists  should  not,  tolerate.  We  should  stimulate  the 
interest  of  the  voter  by  increasing  his  direct  responsibility 
and  influence  on  public  affairs.  Each  ward  or  district  from 
which  councilmen  are  elected  should  have  its  public  hall  or 
ward  room,  as  in  some  of  our  Eastern  cities,  where,  upon  a 
designated  day,  at  least  once  a  month,  the  citizens  should 
meet  their  representatives  for  consultation,  counsel,  and  in- 
struction. In  this  manner,  and  by  the  legalizing  of  the 
primary,  much  of  the  virtue  of  the  town  meeting  may  be 
restored  to  our  municipalities.  The  primary  and  ward  meet- 
ing would  become  educational  influences  of  great  value,  pre- 
paring the  voter  for  the  higher  duties  of  citizenship.  Here 
the  laboring  man  would  meet  the  capitalist  on  terms  of  per- 
fect equality,  and  each  citizen  would  have  his  due  weight 
and  influence  in  shaping  the  public  policy.  Social  classes 
would  learn  to  know  each  other  better  and  to  respect  each 
other's  motives.  Causes  of  social  friction  and  distrust  would 
be  removed  or  alleviated.  The  light  of  public  discussion 
would  be  thrown  upon  all  jobs  and  underhanded  methods 
in  municipal  legislation,  and  corrupt  practices  would  thus 
be  nipped  in  the  bud. 

If  the  ward  meeting  should  be  termed  a  "  Council,"  and 
the  central  representative  body  the  "  Legislative  Assembly," 
these  designations  would  properly  indicate  the  respective 
functions  of  those  bodies.  In  the  first,  the  voters  would 
consult  directly  with  each  other  and  with  their  represent- 
atives, and,  if  necessary,  instruct  the  latter  as  to  their  will 
13 


184  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

in  matters  of  public  policy.*  The  second  or  representative 
body  alone  would  possess  legislative  powers.  Instead  of 
emasculating  the  legislative  body  of  its  functions,  as  has 
been  latterly  attempted,  it  should  be  invested  with  all  the 
authority  possessed  by  the  trustees  or  directors  of  a  private 
corporation,  subject  only  to  the  veto  of  the  Mayor  and  the 
provisions  of  the  general  law  governing  such  bodies,  thus 
adding  to  the  dignity  and  responsibility  of  the  office  and 
making  it  worthy  of  the  most  intelligent  and  respectable 
incumbency.  If  necessary,  the  right  of  the  Assembly  to 
create  indebtedness  should  be  limited  by  general  law,  and 
an  annual  budget  of  expenditures  prepared  by  duly  author- 
ized officials,  as  a  check  on  municipal  extravagance.  The 
principle  of  the  referendum,  or  submission  of  important 
public  measures  to  the  popular  vote,  might  also  be  intro- 
duced under  proper  restrictions.  These  precautions  would 
be  far  less  demanded,  however,  under  the  system  of  respon- 
sibility herein  advocated  than  under  our  present  irrespon- 
sible methods. 

Some  of  the  foregoing  propositions,  if  taken  separately 
and  independently,  will  doubtless  be  regarded  as  open  to 
criticism;  but  it  should  be  remembered  that  they  are  in- 
tended to  act  co-operatively;  and  so  viewed,  they  will  be 
found,  I  think,  parts  of  a  consistent  whole.  After  the 
signing  of  our  Declaration  of  Independence  a  delegate  said 
to  Benjamin  Franklin  :  "  Now  we  must  all  hang  together ! " 
"  Yes,"  was  the  reply,  with  a  suggestive  gesture,  "  or  we  shall 
all  hang  separately."  So,  if  any  of  these  suggestions,  when 
taken  separately,  seems  worthy  of  summary  execution,  let 
the  critic  first  examine  whether  it  hangs  together  with  the 
rest. 

SUMMARY  OF  NATURAL  REMEDIES. 

It  should  be  evident,  I  think,  from  the  foregoing  consid- 
erations, that  the  problem  of  municipal  government  is  but 
a  part  of  that  larger  social  problem  which  is  pressing  upon 
us  for  solution  ;  that  it  can  not  be  wholly  separated  from 
conditions  which  arise  outside  our  cities,  and  to  which  it  is 
vitally  related.  Like  the  larger  social  problem,  its  ultimate 
solution  depends  upon  the  improvement  of  individual  char- 
acter and  intelligence.  Like  it,  its  roots  reach  down  into 
the  very  soil  beneath  our  feet,  and  depend  for  their  nourish- 

*  This  would  permit  the  voter  to  take  the  initiative  in  the  introduction  of  pub- 
lic measures,  as  in  the  system  prevailing  in  the  Swiss  cantons. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  185 

ment  not  only  upon  the  laws  of  human  nature,  but  of  physi- 
cal nature  also.  City  waste  impoverishes  country  vegetation, 
and  this  in  turn  fails  properly  to  nourish  the  inhabitant  of 
city  and  country  alike.  Agriculture  thus  becomes  less  lucra- 
tive, and  thousands  of  farm  laborers  are  forced  to  seek  the 
city  for  a  living,  causing  an  unnatural  congestion  of  popula- 
tion at  the  urban  centers.  Bad  air,  bad  drainage,  poor  food, 
insufficient  sunlight,  and  lack  of  equally  distributed  physical 
exercise  help  to  undermine  the  constitutions  of  city  dwellers, 
so  that  their  children  enter  the  world  dwarfed  and  with  im- 
paired powers  of  digestion  and  assimilation.  That  physical 
ills  react  upon  the  mental  and  moral  stamina  of  the  people 
we  can  not  doubt.  From  a  tenement-house  and  bar-room 
atmosphere  we  can  only  expect  tenement-house  and  bar-room 
politics.  If  we  want  good  citizens,  we  must  cultivate  the 
mens  sana  in  corpore  sano.  To  offset  the  tendencies  to 
vital  deterioration  which  now  prevail  we  must  have  wider 
streets,  better  houses  for  the  poorer  classes,  open  to  the  light 
and  air,  more  numerous  and  extensive  parks — the  lungs  of  a 
great  city — and,  above  all,  easy  access  by  rapid  transit  to 
suburban  homes.  We  must  have  good  schools  for  our  chil- 
dren, wherein  due  attention  is  paid  to  physical  and  moral 
culture,  manual  training,  and  the  duties  of  citizenship,  as 
well  as  to  the  training  of  the  intellect.  We  must  have  purer 
foods,  supplying  all  the  materials  essential  for  healthful 
nutrition,  We  must  restore  to  the  soil  those  vital  elements 
necessary  to  the  growth  of  our  food  supplies.  By  systematic 
exercise,  scientifically  devised  and  applied,  we  must  offset  the 
lack  of  all-around  physical  development  necessitated  by  our 
civic  life.  A  German  poet  has  truly  said : 

"E'en  from  the  body's  purity 
The  mind  derives  a  secret,  sympathetic  aid." 

And  so  this  higher  creation  of  physical  manhood  shall  help 
us  in  our  efforts  rightly  to  solve  the  problems  of  society. 

THE  AMERICAN  CITY  IN  THE  FUTURE. 

Looking  at  the  narrower  problem  of  municipal  adminis- 
tration, we  see  certain  well-defined  tendencies  in  the  evolution 
of  our  political  methods  already  at  work,  and  along  the  lines 
of  these  tendencies,  in  so  far  as  they  offer  opportunities  for 
the  free  activities  of  the  individual  citizen,  must  we  seek  its 
rational  solution.  These  tendencies  indicate  that  the  future 


186  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

American  city  will  be  a  natural  growth,  not  an  artificial 
creation ;  that  it  will  adapt  itself  to  the  structure  and 
genius  of  our  democratic  institutions ;  that  it  will  reclaim 
the  right  of  self-government  which  was  an  original  endow- 
ment of  our  local  communities ;  that  it  will  exercise  this 
right  in  accordance  with  business  principles,  not  as  a  mere 
annex  to  the  machinery  of  national  politics.  It  will  simplify 
its  methods  by  the  abolition  of  supernumerary  boards,  com- 
missions, and  dual  legislative  bodies ;  it  will  abolish  unneces- 
sary elective  offices  and  clothe  its  executive  with  the  full 
power  of  appointing  the  heads  of  municipal  departments, 
thus  making  him  directly  responsible  to  the  people.  It  will 
open  up  a  career  for  those  who  are  laudably  ambitious  to 
serve  the  city,  by  making  permanent  the  tenure  of  subordi- 
nate positions,  subject  to  removal  for  cause ;  while  it  will 
completely  differentiate  executive  from  legislative  functions 
in  our  larger  cities,  restoring  to  the  Government  the  full 
powers  and  responsibility  belonging  to  the  trustees  of  a  cor- 
poration. Such  a  responsible  government,  resting  upon  the 
will  of  the  people,  inviting  and  receiving  the  free  criticism 
and  advice  of  the  citizens  in  the  ward  or  district  councils, 
will  be  readily  responsive  to  an  enlightened  public  sentiment, 
and  embody  its  will  in  a  policy  at  once  economical  and  pro- 
gressive, worthy  of  the  most  advanced  civilization  of  the  age.* 

*  I  am  indebted  to  the  Hon.  Hiram  Howard,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  for  wise  sug- 
gestions, and  the  opportunity  of  access  to  important  statistical  information,  bear- 
ing on  the  problem  of  municipal  government.  My  thanks  are  also  due  to  the 
mayors  of  many  of  our  American  cities  for  valuable  information  in  regard  to 
local  municipal  methods. 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  187 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

HON.  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR  : 

I  regard  the  lecture  to  which  we  have  listened  as  a  most  valuable 
contribution  to  the  literature  of  this  subject.  I  find  nothing  in  it 
with  which  I  substantially  disagree.  I  will  therefore  supplement  it  by 
calling  attention  to  some  elements  which  make  our  present  municipal 
methods  ineffectual.  First,  there  is  the  lamentable  ignorance,  on  the 
part  of  the  citizens,  of  the  workings  of  the  city  government.  I  will  un- 
dertake to  say  that  in  this  intelligent  audience  there  are  not  more  than 
five  men  who  could  name  the  aldermen  who  legislate  for  the  city ;  and 
I  doubt  if  there  are  as  many  who  could  name  the  aldermen  for  their 
own  and  adjacent  wards.  I  also  undertake  to  say  that  I  could  easily 
choose  from  this  audience  five  men  who  would  give  us  a  better  gov- 
ernment than  we  have  ever  enjoyed  in  this  city.  Yet  the  faults  of  our 
administration  are  not  wholly  due  to  those  who  fill  our  municipal 
offices. 

We  often  blame  officials  for  faults  that  are  inherent  in  the  system. 
There  is  much  unjust  criticism  of  public  officers.  We  are  inclined  to 
expect  impossibilities  of  a  man  because  he  holds  office.  It  is  true,  how- 
ever, that  our  municipal  government  has  been  largely  given  over  to 
the  professional  politicians.  A  person  accidentally  stepping  into  a 
meeting  of  the  legislature  of  this  city  would  be  surprised  to  learn 
that  these  men  had  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  city  in 
their  hands.  He  would  be  likely  to  suppose  himself  in  some  brewers' 
association,  with  a  lunatic  or  two  and  a  few  Mugwumps  thrown  in 
by  way  of  variety. 

One  reason  that  we  have  this  kind  of  business  is  that  the  better 
class  of  citizens  who  occasionally  step  in  and  try  to  effect  reforms  are 
too  slow.  In  October  they  say :  "  Let  us  have  a  meeting  of  the  decent 
men,  and  nominate  a  better  class  of  candidates."  They  send  out  no- 
tices, meet,  resolve,  and  then  find  out  that  in  the  previous  September 
primary  meetings  have  been  held  in  which  it  has  been  practically  de- 
termined who  is  to  be  mayor  and  who  are  to  be  the  aldermen.  The 
greatest  absurdity  in  our  present  situation  is  the  admixture  of  national 
politics  with  city  government.  It  is  ridiculous  that  a  man's  view  on 
bimetallism  should  influence  his  vote  for  a  man  to  clean  our  city 
streets. 

Our  crude  system  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  present  state  of 


188  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

civilization  in  our  country.  The  absorbing  thing  with  men  is  to  bet- 
ter their  condition,  and  they  can  not  afford  to  attend  to  the  govern- 
ment, which  is  therefore  remitted  to  a  small  class  of  politicians.  This 
is  in.  part  necessitated  by  the  complexity  of  the  system — and  then  we, 
at  oui  leisure,  berate  the  officials.  There  is  no  panacea  for  the  evils 
noted.  In  a  general  way,  the  remedy  is  to  make  the  citizens  more 
worthy,  to  cultivate  patriotism,  and  not  ignore  the  fact  that  there  is 
just  as  much  patriotism  among  the  ignorant  voters  and  practical  poli- 
ticians as  among  the  well-to-do  who  stand  aloof  from  the  machine. 
There  is  something  in  the  idea  of  going  back  to  the  town-meeting  system, 
and  substituting  for  the  meeting  of  all  the  citizens  in  one  place,  which 
is  impracticable,  a  division  into  small  districts  and  the  selection  in  each 
of  one  person  delegated  with  the  power  of  two  or  three  hundred.  The 
advantage  of  the  town  meeting  was  that  there  each  man  counted  for 
all  he  was  worth  in  character ;  he  was  weighed  as  well  as  counted. 

We  need  to  cultivate  a  municipal  spirit — a  civic  pride  in  that  which 
pertains  to  our  own  city — to  feel  that  our  city  is  the  best  spot  on 
earth,  to  be  proud  of  our  neighborhood  and  willing  to  work  for  it  and 
protect  it. 

HON.  CHARLES  S.  FAIRCHILD: 

I  have  but  little  to  say  in  criticism  or  opposition,  and,  like  Mr.  Tay- 
lor, I  shall  be  obliged  to  speak  upon  the  subject  somewhat  generally. 
First,  of  the  tendency  of  population  to  our  cities.  I  have  been  look- 
ing at  the  census  of  my  native  county,  Madison.  The  total  popula- 
tion of  the  county  has  diminished  about  1,200  in  ten  years.  At  the 
same  time  the  villages  of  the  county — there  are  no  cities — increased 
over  4,000.  Hence  there  has  been  a  decrease  of  rural  population  of 
from  5,000  to  6,000,  or  about  seventeen  per  cent.  A  large  portion  of 
this  population  has  gone  away  from  the  county,  and  another  large 
portion  into  the  villages.  I  notice  the  abandonment  of  small  holdings 
of  lands.  There  used  to  be  plots  of  from  three  to  five  acres  within  a 
mile  or  so  of  the  villages  owned  and  occupied  by  laborers,  who,  when 
otherwise  unemployed,  worked  on  their  land.  These  are  being  aban- 
doned, and  the  people  are  crowding  into  two-  or  three-story  houses  in 
the  villages.  This  being  the  general  condition  of  things,  the  problem 
of  municipal  government  is  most  important  and  vital  to  the  people  of 
this  country. 

I  have  thought  how  strange  is  the  evolution  of  government  from 
that  primitive  condition  which  leaves  the  settlement  of  questions  of 
right  between  one's  self  and  one's  neighbor  in  one's  own  hands, 
and  that  where  other  powers  step  in  and  alter  the  relations.  If  the 
three  men  on  this  platform  owned  one  thousand  acres  of  land,  we 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  189 

might  lay  drains,  build  roads,  and  perhaps  houses  for  the  laborers  to 
live  in,  as  we  saw  fit.  But  if  we  went  on  building  houses  and  letting 
them,  presently  the  drains  would  become  sewers ;  the  roads,  streets ; 
lanterns,  lamps  ;  the  well  a  system  of  pipes  from  the  spring  or  lake  on 
the  hillside.  The  people  would  get  a  city  charter,  and  then  all  the 
management  would  pass  from  our  hands  into  theirs.  This  is  inevita- 
ble and  necessary ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  management  of  such 
affairs  from  first  to  last  that  is  properly  called  government ;  it  is  busi- 
ness. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  municipal  problems  is  how  to  educate  the  peo- 
ple. I  do  not  mean  the  education  that  comes  from  books  or  schools, 
or  even  through  the  newspapers ;  but  the  kind  which  comes  from  per- 
sonal contact  of  one  man  with  his  neighbors.  In  a  small  community 
one  man  may  influence  all  the  others,  while  in  New  York  the  same 
man  may  not  exert  the  same  influence  even  on  fifty  others.  We  sepa- 
rate ourselves  according  to  our  means  and  taste,  and  are  deprived  of 
almost  all  the  education  which  comes  from  association.  In  our  village 
of  2,000  inhabitants,  in  the  election  of  trustees  there  is  no  thought  of 
politics;  yet  in  national  affairs  the  political  feeling  is  very  intense. 
In  connection  with  charitable  organizations,  with  which  1  am  familiar, 
I  see  no  solution  of  this  problem.  Guilds,  college  settlements,  etc., 
tend  in  the  right  direction,  but  are  woefully  inadequate.  The  plan 
suggested  to  localize  affairs  is  good.  Let  the  people  in  a  certain  por- 
tion of  the  city,  for  instance,  see  that  the  streets  of  that  part  are  kept 
clean.  There  are  difficulties  in  the  way,  such  as  the  duplication  of 
plants,  etc.,  but  there  is  no  objection  sufficient  to  overcome  the  great 
advantage  of  any  system  that  would  give  this  mutual  contact  and  edu- 
cation. The  prevailing  lack  of  confidence  of  the  poor  in  the  wealthy 
might  be  supplied  by  the  village  association  which  we  have  lost. 

HON.  JOSEPH  0.  HENDRIX  : 

I  am  reminded  of  the  dying  man  who  called  his  son  to  his  bedside 
and  said :  "  My  son,  I  have  had  an  awful  lot  of  trouble  in  my  life,  but 
it  never  amounted  to  anything."  Undoubtedly,  we  have  a  good  deal 
of  trouble  with  our  city  governments ;  but  I  do  not  think  it  amounts 
to  much,  after  all.  Napoleon  said  that  three  fourths  of  govern- 
ment was  in  the  imagination.  There  are  defects,  of  course,  in  our 
Government,  but  we  have  difficulties  also  in  our  households,  in  our 
business,  and  everywhere.  We  should  not  approach  these  questions 
forgetting  that  we  are  dealing  with  people  of  flesh  and  blood,  with 
the  usual  human  frailties.  The  people  whom  we  call  the  lower  class 
have  a  keener  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  city  than  some  of  the  oth- 
ers. The  representatives  whom  they  choose 'are  more  above  the  level 


190  The  Problem  of  City  Government. 

of  the  population  than  the  representatives  of  the  better  portions  of 
the  city.  The  dangerous  class  is  not  the  great  mass  of  poor  and  un- 
educated, but  the  respectable  class,  the  laissez-faire  people,  who  want 
to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  our  institutions  without  working  their  pas- 
sage. They  engage  in  fashionable  frivolities,  and  send  money  to  the 
heathen,  and  find  fault  with  municipal  affairs  which  they  do  nothing 
to  remedy.  Things  are  pretty  well  managed  now  in  our  cities.  We 
can  not  expect  the  results  which  have  been  attained  in  European  cit- 
ies. If  we  attempted  to  keep  our  city  in  the  condition  of  Paris  by  the 
methods  of  Paris,  the  people  would  rebel.  There  is  much  to  be  done, 
but  much  has  already  been  done.  Those  in  the  community  who 
should  set  the  example  neglect  their  duties.  If  all  the  gentlemen 
here  and  the  rest  of  their  standing  should  attend  the  primaries  that 
are  to  be  held  this  week,  the  so-called  professional  politicians  would 
pull  down  their  signs  and  go  out  of  business. 

MR.  WILLIAM  POTTS  (in  the  Chair) : 

It  is  not  practicable  for  all  men  to  go  to  the  primaries,  for,  in  order 
to  do  so,  one  must  be  a  member  of  the  party  organization.  If  he  has 
voted  independently  in  the  previous  election,  he  would  be  black-balled 
and  disqualified. 

DR.  JANES,  in  closing :  I  sympathize  with  the  optimism  of  Mr.  Hen- 
drix,  but  do  not  agree  with  him  that  our  present  methods  offer  ade- 
quate opportunities  for  the  cure  of  existing  evils.  In  one  respect  I  am 
even  more  optimistic  than  he  is — I  believe  that  we  can  have  our  streets 
as  clean  and  our  business  as  well  managed  as  in  European  cities ;  but 
not  while  we  tolerate  the  present  absurd  admixture  of  national  and 
municipal  politics. 

The  first  speaker  favored  small  representative  districts.  This  would 
probably  be  an  improvement,  but  if  the  system  were  purely  representa- 
tive, as  at  present,  the  method  would  still  be  wholly  inadequate.  We 
should  then  have  a  large  and  cumbrous  body  of  representatives  to  deal 
with,  and  the  city  would  be  split  up  into  numerous  sections  with  a 
variety  of  interests  and  administrative  regulations.  I  should  favor 
districts  somewhat  larger,  with  a  consulting  assembly  of  the  whole 
people  in  each,  and  a  single  legislative  body  for  the  entire  city.  Ward 
or  district  assemblies  would  in  a  great  measure  restore  the  educational 
influences  of  the  town  meeting  which  is  the  ideal  of  Mr.  Fairchild ; 
and  they  can  be  restored  in  no  other  way.  This  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  most  serious  elements  in  our  problem,  which  I  have  endeavored  in 
this  way  to  meet.  Such  voluntary  associations  of  the  citizens  as  this 
in  which  we  are  laboring  should  also  spring  into  existence  all  over  our 


The  Problem  of  City  Government.  191 

great  cities,  aiming  to  stimulate  thought  and  encourage  wise  activi- 
ties along  scientific  and  evolutionary  lines.  The  churches  afford  the 
opportunity — but  are  they  wise  enough  thus  to  reduce  their  religion 
to  practice  ?  In  the  consulting  assemblies  we  should  receive  assistance 
from  the  poorer  and  less  educated  classes,  and  the  manual  laborers, 
who,  as  has  been  truly  said,  are  often  our  superiors  in  civic  virtue.  I 
think,  therefore,  if  the  plan  which  I  have  suggested,  which  seems  to  be 
already  in  process  of  evolution,  could  be  carried  out — including  the 
vital  feature  of  the  popular  consulting  assembly — we  could  have  the 
virtues  of  the  town  meeting  restored,  and  the  different  classes  of  our 
citizens  would  learn  to  know  each  other  better,  and  to  respect  each 
other's  motives. 

A  more  ethical  treatment  of  the  land,  which  would  render  agricult- 
ural pursuits  remunerative,  would  stop  the  excessive  flow  of  popula- 
tion to  our  cities  and  somewhat  relieve  the  congestion  of  our  urban 
centers.  Men  seek  the  cities  because  they  think — and  they  are  usually 
right — they  can  make  a  better  living  there.  The  cityward  flow  can 
not  be  checked  unless  we  can  greatly  improve  the  prospects  of  the 
farmer.  That  it  can  be  altogether  checked  or  reversed,  even  in  this 
way,  I  do  not  believe  to  be  either  possible  or  desirable ;  but  we  are  un- 
doubtedly suffering  at  present  from  a  forced  and  unnatural  tendency 
in  this  direction,  for  which  I  can  see  no  remedy  except  that  already 
indicated. 


TAXATION  AND  REVENUE 

THE   FREE-TRADE   VIEW 


BY 

THOMAS  G.  SHEARMAN 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Spencer's  Justice ;  Mill's  Principles  of  Political  Economy ;  McCul- 
loch's  Principles  of  Political  Economy ;  Walker's  Political  Economy ; 
Taussig's  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States ;  Ely's  Problems  of  To- 
day ;  George's  Protection  or  Free  Trade ;  Fawcett's  Free  Trade  and 
Protection ;  Bastiat's  Sophisms  of  Protection ;  Wells's  Practical  Eco- 
nomics ;  Talbot's  Tariif  from  the  White  House ;  Wright's  Scientific 
Basis  of  Tariff  Legislation;  Sumner's  History  of  Protection  in  the 
United  States,  and  Protectionism  the  "  ism  "  which  teaches  that  Waste 
makes  Wealth ;  TrumbulPs  The  American  Lesson  of  the  Free-Trade 
Struggle  in  England ;  Atkinson's  Common  Sense  of  the  Tariff  Ques- 
tion, in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  August  and  September,  1890 ;  Tariff 
Message  of  President  Grover  Cleveland. 


TAXATION    AND    REVENUE: 

THE   FREE-TRADE    VIEW. 
BY  THOMAS  G.  SHEARMAN. 

WHAT  is  free  trade  ? 

It  is  simply  one  application  of  that  general  law  of  human 
liberty  upon  which  our  American  republic  is  founded,  and 
which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  modern  civilization.  It  is  the 
recognition  of  the  right  of  every  man,  not  only  to  life,  but 
also  to  liberty  and  to  the  pursuit  of  happiness  in  his  own 
way,  so  long  as  he  does  no  injury  to  the  similar  rights  of 
others. 

The  right  of  free  trade  means  the  right  to- exchange  the 
products  of  our  industry  with  the  products  of  others,  with- 
out any  dictation  on  the  part  of  the  state  as  to  the  persons 
with  whom  we  may  or  may  not  exchange,  so  long  as  our 
transactions  are  not  inconsistent  with  good  morals  and  good 
order. 

These  rights  being  conceded  by  our  own  people  as  to 
transactions  between  each  other,  free  trade  has  come  to  mean 
in  our  country  simply  the  extension  of  the  same  liberty  to 
our  foreign  commerce  which  is  secured  to  our  domestic 
commerce.  It  may  therefore,  for  the  present  purpose,  be 
defined  as  the  right  of  every  citizen  of  one  country  to  trade 
with  citizens  of  every  other  country  as  freely  as  he  may  with 
his  own  fellow-citizens. 

Commerce  between  different  nations  is  one  of  the  highest 
developments  of  evolution.  In  the  earliest  stages  of  the 
human  race  there  could  have  been  no  trade,  because  each 
family  was  isolated.  As  soon  as  the  smallest  clan  was 
formed,  exchanges  of  products  must  have  come  into  use ;  and 
so  trade  began.  With  the  successive  formations  of  the 
tribe  and  the  nation  trade  extended  its  sphere ;  but  it  was 
kept  within  narrow  limits  by  the  universal  prevalence  of 
that  savage  feeling  which  for  ages  made  the  name  of 
"  stranger  "  mean  the  same  thing  as  "  enemy."  Every  thor- 
oughly savage  tribe  has  always  maintained  the  most 
thorough  protection  to  its  native  industries  by  the  strict  ex- 


196  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

elusion  of  all  foreign  competition.  The  savages  of  interior 
Africa  and  Brazil  are  far  better  guarded  from  the  flood  of 
foreign  goods  than  we  can  ever  be;  and  no  products  of 
foreign  pauper  labor  ever  disturb  the  symmetry  of  their 
domestic  manufactures.  Poisoned  arrows  supply  the  place 
of  a  tariff,  and  clubs  are  more  effective  than  navigation  laws. 

The  evolution  of  human  society  and  the  evolution  of 
trade  have  gone  on  side  by  side.  The  one  is  impossible 
without  the  other.  A  family,  a  tribe,  a  village  community, 
a  city,  a  state,  a  nation,  among  whose  members  there  is  no 
exchange  of  products  or  services,  is  an  impossibility.  It  has 
never  existed  and  can  never  exist.  But  the  elimination  of 
the  savage  element  has  been  slow ;  and  therefore  even  trade 
between  different  towns  has  only  become  free  within  a  com- 
paratively recent  period.  Trade  is  not  entirely  free  even 
yet  between  all  the  cities  of  France  or  of  Italy  or  of  Ger- 
many. Little  more  than  a  century  ago  France  had  scarcely 
any  free  internal  trade. 

But  wherever  social  organization  has  reached  its  full  de- 
velopment, as  in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  trade 
between  all  members  of  the  same  society  is  absolutely  free. 
Some  of  our  own  States  are  backward  in  civilization ;  and 
there  it  is  noticeable  that  efforts  are  still  made  to  hinder 
trade  with  other  Americans,  which  have  to  be  resisted  by 
our  national  Supreme  Court.  Where  civilization  has 
reached  its  highest  point  no  such  efforts  are  made. 

The  widespread  inclination  to  restrict  trade  between 
foreign  nations  is  simply  a  survival  in  civilized  man  of  the 
prejudices  of  his  savage  ancestors.  There  is  no  argument 
made  in  opposition  to  free  trade  between  America  and 
England  which  is  not  at  least  equally  applicable  to  free 
trade  between  Massachusetts  and  the  Carolinas.  Is  free 
trade  injurious  to  America  because  wages  in  England  are 
lower  than  here  ?  Wages  in  the  Carolinas  are  lower  still. 
Or  is  it  because  the  rate  of  interest  is  lower  in  England  than 
here  ?  The  difference  between  rates  of  interest  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  Carolinas  is  greater  still.  So  Massachusetts 
seems  to  need  protection  against  the  Carolinas  on  account 
of  their  pauper  labor,  while  the  Carolinas  need  protection 
against  her  on  account  of  her  lower  rates  of  interest,  greater 
capital,  and  longer  experience. 

Should  the  fact  that  Englishmen  do  not  pay  any  of  our 
taxes  have  any  weight  as  an  argument  against  free  trade  ? 
Then  it  applies  with  far  more  force  to  the  other  case ;  for 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  197 

taxes  in  Massachusetts  are  much  more  heavy  than  in  the 
Carolinas,  and  certainly  the  Carolinas  do  not  help  to  pay 
Massachusetts  taxes. 

The  tax  argument,  the  labor  argument,  the  interest  argu- 
ment, the  argument  from  the  advantage  supposed  to  attach 
to  long  experience — in  short,  all  the  arguments  used  to  justify 
the  prohibition  of  free  trade  between  Massachusetts  and 
Lancashire — apply  with  double  force  to  condemn  free  trade 
between  Massachusetts  and  any  Southern  State. 

These  differences  have  always  existed.  They  were  far 
greater  than  now  when,  in  1814,  the  Carolinas  were  ready  to 
invade  Massachusetts  in  order  to  keep  her  in  the  Union ;  or 
when,  in  1864,  Massachusetts  did  invade  the  Carolinas  to 
keep  them  in  the  Union — that  union  having  no  material  ad- 
vantage to  either  side,  except  as  a  guarantee  of  mutual  free 
trade. 

Thus  we  Northern  philosophers  organized  a  powerful 
army  to  shoot  Virginians  into  accepting  free  trade  with  us, 
while  we  maintain  a  small  army  on  our  frontier  to  shoot 
Canadians  who  attempt  free  trade  with  us. 

FREE  TRADE  A  PART  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

The  simple  obvious  truth  is  that  the  only  substantial  foun- 
dation for  the  prejudice  against  free  trade  among  the  vast 
majority  of  those  who  entertain  it  is  that  instinctive  hatred 
of  foreigners  which  we  inherit  from  our  barbarous  ancestors 
of  remote  ages.  Let  the  sweet  wisdom  of  Jesus  prevail — 
let  Christians  once  practice  his  precepts  of  universal  love, 
and  there  would  not  be  an  hour's  question  as  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  free  trade. 

For  Tolstoi  has  beautifully  shown  the  true  meaning  of 
those  words  of  Jesus :  "  Love  your  enemies."  Jesus  meant 
what  we  understand  by  those  words ;  but  he  also  meant 
something  more.  The  words  "  enemy  "  and  "  foreigner  " 
meant  originally  the  same  thing.  So  Jesus  reminded  the 
Jews  that  they  had  heard  it  said :  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  and  hate  the  foreigner."  Against  this  he  declared  : 
"  Love  the  foreigner.  Yes !  love  your  foreign  enemies. 
Yes !  love  all  your  enemies,  whether  native  or  foreign." 

Again  he  amplified  and  illustrated  the  command — "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  " — by  teaching  plainly  that 
the  word  "  neighbor "  was  to  include  foreigners ;  and  not 
merely  friendly  foreigners,  but -also  the  most  hateful,  hostile, 


198  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

detestable  foreigners — the  Samaritans,  whom  the  Jews  hated 
even  more  than  we  hate  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe. 

Free  trade,  as  a  principle,  is  an  inherent  part  of  Christi- 
anity. No  one  can  be  a  logical  and  consistent  Christian 
without  being  also  a  free-trader.  A  Christian  love  which 
does  not  take  every  human  being  into  its  clasp  is  by  just  so 
much  not  Christian.  One  may  be  a  good  family  man,  and 
love  none  but  his  family.  He  may  be  a  good  citizen,  yet  love 
only  his  own  city.  He  may  be  a  good  patriot,  yet  love  only 
his  own  country.  But  he  can  not  be  a  good  Christian  unless 
his  love  takes  in  the  whole  world  and  seeks  the  best  things 
for  every  human  being.  Fortunately  for  all  of  us,  illogical 
and  inconsistent  Christians  are  not  shut  entirely  out  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

Suppose  Jesus  should  return  to  earth  to-day,  settling  in 
some  European  city.  He  would  be  an  artisan,  as  he  was 
1900  years  ago.  He  would  almost  certainly  be  engaged  in 
manufacturing  some  articles  suited  for  export  to  this  coun- 
try. Suppose  this  fact  were  known,  and,  while  American 
pilgrims  thronged  by  the  hundred  thousand  across  the 
ocean,  to  kiss  the  hem  of  his  garment,  our  devout  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  who  believes  that  Jesus  is  very  God  of  God, 
should  find  before  him  a  little  McKiiiley  bill,  imposing  a 
tax  of  400  per  cent,  on  the  productions  of  the  Divine  Arti- 
san. What  should  he  do  ?  Sign  a  bill  the  inevitable  effect 
of  which  would  be  to  drive  into  starvation  his  Lord  and 
Master  ?  Sign  it  for  that  very  purpose — with  that  deliber- 
ate intent  ? 

I  put  this  question  once  to  a  Calvinistic  Doctor  of  Divin- 
ity ;  and,  after  much  wriggling,  but  with  a  very  red  face, 
he  declared  that  he  would  do  just  that  thing.  I  respected 
his  logic,  if  not  his  principles,  and  only  drove  the  lesson 
home  by  quoting  the  words  of  his  Master :  "  Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren, 
ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

FREE  TRADE  DICTATED  BY  SELF-INTEREST. 

The  moral  aspect  of  free  trade  is  to  me  the  supreme  con- 
sideration ;  and  no  argument  which  ignores  this  makes  any 
impression  on  my  mind.  But  since  there  are,  unfortunately, 
multitudes  of  nominal  believers  in  a  Divine  Father  to 
whom  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  an  empty  phrase,  possibly 
a  repulsive  one,  and  multitudes  of  nominal  republicans 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  199 

who  love  liberty  only  for  themselves,  it  is  necessary  to  de- 
scend to  their  level  and  to  show  that  free  trade  is  dictated 
not  only  by  religion  and  morality,  but  also  by  enlightened 
self-interest. 

Free  trade  means  simply  freedom  for  yourself  in  com- 
mercial affairs.  To  insist  that  foreigners  shall  set  them- 
selves at  liberty  before  we  will  accept  liberty  for  ourselves 
is  what  is  called  reciprocity,  or  fair  trade.  Secure  absolute 
freedom  for  yourself,  and  you  will  secure  free  trade  for 
your  whole  country.  Deny  free  trade  to  your  country,  and 
you  are  forced  to  reduce  yourself  to  partial  slavery.  This  is 
precisely  what  happens  under  the  system  of  restriction. 
For  the  sake  of  depriving  your  fellow-countrymen  of  lib- 
erty, you  first  of  all  deprive  yourself. 

Eestriction  upon  trade  is  unpatriotic.  The  only  nation 
which  we  can  exclude  from  the  liberty  of  commerce  is  our 
own.  The  only  way  in  which  we  injure  other  countries  by 
commercial  restrictions  is  by  inflicting  greater  injury  upon 
our  own.  For  no  one  is  really  anxious  to  sell ;  the  desire  of 
every  one  is  to  buy.  Selling  is  an  unpleasant  necessity,  im- 
posed by  natural  law,  as  a  condition  of  buying.  The  very 
peddler  who  besieges  you  with  clamorous  offers  to  sell  you 
oranges  would  be  only  too  glad  if  you  would  let  him  take 
your  dollar  without  selling  you  a  single  orange.  Your 
grocer  would  be  delighted  to  keep  his  groceries  for  his  own 
family  if  you  will  only  let  him  buy  his  clothing  and  fuel 
from  you,  without  asking  him  to  sell  you  anything  in  ex- 
change. Your  very  servant  girls  would  gladly  accept  all 
the  food  and  clothes  which  you  will  give  them,  without  the 
disagreeable  necessity  of  selling  their  services.  I  repeat : 
No  one  wants  to  sell ;  every  one  wants  to  buy. 

Therefore,  when  we  put  a  tariff  on  imports  across  the 
path  of  commerce,  we  simply  put  fetters  on  our  own  coun- 
try. No  foreigner  wants  to  send  his  goods  to  us ;  he  would 
much  prefer  to  keep  them  himself,  if  only  we  would  pay 
for  them  without  receiving  them.  The  reason  why  he'  dis- 
likes our  tariff  is  that  he  finds  from  experience  that  he  can 
not  buy  from  us  if  we  will  not  buy  from  him.  He  sends 
us  nothing  but  what  we  want  to  have  ;  and  when  we  refuse 
to  take  it,  we  are  so  much  the  poorer.  The  foreigner  suf- 
fers, it  is  true ;  but  only  because  our  self-inflicted  poverty 
makes  us  unable  or  unwilling  to  send  good  things  to  him. 

Our  exports  are  so  much  lost  to  us ;  our  imports  are  so 
much  gained.  If  we  could  receive  imports  without  making 
14 


200  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

any  exports,  we  should  grow  rich  and  lazy.  Nature  wisely 
prevents  us  from  thus  falling  into  idleness,  by  making  it 
impossible  for  us  to  import  without  exporting  an  equiva- 
lent. 

But  how  can  both  sides  grow  rich  by  foreign  trade,  if  we 
export  as  much  as  we  import  ?  Simply  because  what  we  ex- 
port is  of  less  value  to  us  than  what  we  import ;  while  it  is 
of  more  value  to  foreigners  than  what  they  send  to  us  in  ex- 
change. Thus,  Americans  raise  more  wheat  than  they  can 
possibly  consume ;  and  all  the  surplus  is  absolutely  useless 
to  them.  But  German  artisans  make  more  cloth  than  they 
can  wear,  and  this  is  useless  to  them.  The  Germans  want 
the  wheat,  and  the  Americans  want  the  cloth.  The  ex- 
change is  very  profitable  to  both  sides. 

This  exchange  of  products,  which  goes  on  continually,  is 
to  the  civilized  social  organization  what  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  is  to  the  body.  If  stopped  entirely,  civilization 
perishes.  If  artificially  obstructed  in  any  way,  society  be- 
comes diseased.  Nobody  states  this  more  strongly  than 
Henry  C.  Carey,  the  great  apostle  of  American  protection- 
ism. He  puts  it  in  large  words,  saying  that  the  progress  of 
civilization  depends  upon  the  rapidity  and  freedom  of 
societary  circulation.  But  this,  translated  into  plain  Eng- 
lish, means  nothing  less  and  nothing  else  than  that  the 
prosperity  of  every  nation  depends  upon  the  freedom  of  its 
trade. 

How,  then,  does  the  greatest  protectionist  justify  protec- 
tion ?  By  insisting  that  trade  will  not  be  so  free,  if  left  to 
itself,  as  it  will  be  if  guided  by  legislation.  Because  ex- 
changes between  places  near  to  each  other  can  be  made 
more  rapidly  than  between  distant  places,  he  maintains  that 
the  rapidity  and  freedom  of  trade  will  be  best  promoted  by 
laws  partially  prohibiting  trade  between  countries  remote 
from  each  other. 

If  this  is  true,  then  the  rapidity  and  freedom  of  the  cir- 
culation of  blood  in  the  human  body  will  be  promoted  by 
tying  up  some  of  the  arteries,  so  as  to  save  the  loss  of  time 
and  energy  involved  in  the  journey  of  blood  from  the  head 
to  the  feet.  Let  the  blood  of  the  brain  be  kept  for  use^in 
the  brain ;  and  blood  in  the  feet  confined  to  the  feet,  in- 
stead of  losing  the  time  occupied  in  the  long  journey  from 
one  to  the  other. 

You  answer  that  Nature  takes  care  of  this,  far  better  than 
we  can.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  Nature  takes  care  of 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  201 

trade  and  commerce,  far  better  than  we  can.  Can  any  one 
of  us  give  useful  advice  to  any  one  else  as  to  where  he 
should  buy  or  sell  ?  Can  any  congressman,  or  all  Congress 
together,  tell  your  wife  which  is  the  best  place  for  her  pur- 
chases of  groceries  or  clothing  ?  Can  any  number  of  men, 
be  they  ever  so  wise,  despotically  guide  your  affairs  for  you 
without  bringing  you  to  ruin  ? 

How  can  any  Congress  have  wisdom  enough  to  do  for 
the  whole  country  that  which  it  certainly  can  not  do  for 
you  alone  ?  Yet  you,  who  would  not  tolerate  the  dictation 
of  Congress  as  to  where  you  should  buy  one  suit  of  clothes, 
accept  as  a  matter  of  course  the  dictation  of  Congress  as  to 
where  60,000,000  of  us  shall  all  buy  all  our  clothes. 

THE  WAGES  ARGUMENT. 

The  most  effective  argument  for  restricted  trade  in  this 
country  is  that  our  highly  paid  laborers  need  a  tariff  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  competition  of  foreign  pauper  labor. 
And  we  are  often  told  that  the  protective  tariff  is  main- 
tained for  this  purpose  alone.  Considered  as  an  argument 
for  a  tariff  on  goods  manufactured  by  machinery  (and  it  is 
from  the  manufacturers  of  such  goods  that  our  protective 
system  receives  all  the  support  which  gives  it  any  vitality), 
the  absurdity  of  this  claim  can  be  shown  by  any  one  of 
many  simple  facts.  Some  of  these  facts  answer  the  claim 
as  to  all  classes  of  articles. 

Every  tariff  is  a  tax  upon  anything  which  is  imported 
under  it.  When  protectionists  deny  that  the  tariff  is  a  tax, 
they  mean  that  it  is  not  a  tax  upon  Americans.  Their  claim  is 
that  the  tax  is  paid  by  the  foreigner  who  sends  the  goods  here. 
When  $200,000,000  have  been  annually  collected  by  our  Gov- 
ernment from  the  tariff,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  a  tax  on  some- 
body. We  need  not  waste  time  upon  any  one  who  is  so  dull 
as  not  to  see  that.  If  this  enormous  tax,  amounting  to  more 
than  half  the  market  value  of  the  goods,  is  really  paid  by 
foreigners  for  the  privilege  of  selling  here,  then  these  for- 
eigners would  make  a  profit  of  50  to  100  per  cent  upon  their 
goods,  if  the  tariff  were  repealed.  We  may  be  certain  that 
such  profits  would  draw  a  rush  of  capital  into  such  profitable 
employment,  and  that  competition  would  speedily  reduce 
profits  to  less  than  ten  per  cent.  Three  Brooklyn  firms 
would  do  the  whole  business  for  a  profit  of  five  per  cent. 
Therefore,  Americans  would  quickly  get  all  the  benefit  of  a 


202  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

repeal  of  their  tariff.  So  they  lose  just  as  much  by  making 
the  foreigner  pay  these  taxes,  as  if  Americans  paid  all  the 
tax  themselves. 

But  it  is  utterly  absurd  to  suppose  that  foreigners  pay  the 
whole  tariff  tax.  No  half-intelligent  protectionist  writer 
pretends  that  this  is  true.  The  utmost  claim  that  is  honestly 
made  in  this  direction  is  that  foreigners  pay  about  one  third 
of  these  taxes ;  and  even  this  is  not  true.  But,  true  or  false, 
it  makes  no  difference.  Americans  either  pay  the  tariff  taxes 
themselves,  or  they  could  gain  the  same  amount  by  the 
effects  of  competition,  if  the  tariff  were  repealed ;  and  in 
either  case  the  result  is  the  same. 

Americans,  therefore,  either  pay  directly  the  whole  of  this 
tax  or  lose  the  same  amount,  through  the  exclusion  of  com- 
petition. What  class  of  Americans  bear  this  loss  ?  Seven 
eighths  of  it  falls  upon  the  laborers — the  very  class  for  whose 
benefit  you  say  that  the  tax  is  laid.  For  the  amount  of 
duties  collected  from  other  classes,  by  means  of  taxes  upon 
imports,  never  amounts  to  enough  to  pay  one  tenth  of  the 
Government  expenses.  So  you  make  the  laborers  pay  all  the 
taxes  by  which  their  wages  are  to  be  increased.  Would  it 
not  be  better  to  leave  them  untaxed,  to  take  their  chances  as 
to  wages  ? 

The  competition  which  is  feared  by  American  manufact- 
urers does  not  come  from  those  countries  in  which  wages  are 
lowest.  What  manufacturer  of  cotton,  woolen,  or  metals  is 
in  danger  of  competition  from  the  ten-cent  labor  of  China 
or  the  twenty-five-cent  labor  of  Eussia?  What  Northern 
manufacturer  was  ever  afraid  of  the  competition  of  Southern 
slave  labor?  Our  manufacturers  would  gladly  consent  to 
free  trade  with  any  country  where  wages  are  below  thirty 
cents  a  day.  It  is  the  seventy-cent  labor  of  Germany  and 
France  which  makes  them  anxious ;  and  it  is  the  dollar-and- 
a-quarter  labor  of  England  of  which  they  stand  in  terror. 

All  over  the  world  a  low  rate  of  daily  wages  means  ineffi- 
cient and  therefore  costly  labor.  The  higher  the  average 
rate  of  daily  wages,  the  smaller  is  the  cost  of  production. 
This  is  always  true  of  machine  products,  and  is  largely  true 
of  everything  else.  The  employer  of  slave  or  pauper  labor 
really  needs  protection  against  the  products  of  free  and  well- 
paid  labor.  All  over  Europe  every  protective  tariff  is 
avowedly  framed  upon  this  principle. 

The  free  importation  of  all  goods  would  instantly  produce 
a  great  rise  in  wages.  Suppose  free  trade  were  established 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  203 

to-morrow.  Suppose  $500,000,000  worth  of  goods  were  im- 
ported next  year,  in  addition  to  those  now  imported — a  most 
extravagant  estimate.  How  would  these  be  paid  for  ?  Not 
by  bank  notes  or  greenbacks,  for  no  foreigner  would  accept 
these.  Not  in  gold,  for  we  could  not  send  out  any  more 
than  we  send  now ;  and,  moreover,  foreigners  can  not  eat  gold 
or  wear  gold  any  more  than  we  can.  They  would  want  our 
grain,  our  flour,  our  cotton,  our  beef,  our  pork.  Our  farmers 
would  be  made  rich.  The  price  of  manufactured  goods 
would  be  reduced,  of  course.  But,  at  lower  prices,  the  mass 
of  the  people  could  and  would  buy  vastly  more.  Manufact- 
urers might  have  to  be  content  with  smaller  profits  on  each 
sale ;  but  this  would  only  make  them  anxious  to  multiply 
their  sales.  At  least  $500,000,000  worth  of  domestic  goods 
could  be  sold,  at  the  lower  prices,  in  addition  to  what  were 
sold  before.  Wages  would  rise  rapidly  upon  farms,  because 
of  the  immense  demand  for  farm  products  with  which  to 
pay  for  the  new  imports.  Wages  would  rise  also  in  factories, 
because  of  the  vastly  greater  demand  which  would  be  caused 
by  the  fall  in  prices.  Wages  never  rise  merely  because 
prices  are  high.  They  rise  only  when  employers  make  more 
goods.  And  every  permanent  fall  in  prices  widens  the 
demand  for  goods. 

It  will  be  said  that  all  this  is  mere  theory.  But  it  is 
exactly  what  happened,  on  a  smaller  scale,  in  1847,  when  a 
small  reduction  was  made  in  protective  duties.  And  pre- 
cisely the  reverse  happened  when  tariff  taxes  were  increased 
in  1842, 1861, 1883,  and  1890.  In  each  instance  the  general 
rate  of  wages  fell  at  once,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  country 
was  manifestly  checked.  The  twelve  months  immediately 
following  the  adoption  of  the  high  tariff  of  1890  have  been 
the  most  disastrous  to  the  general  business  community,  out- 
side of  large  corporations,  for  the  last  thirty  years.  The 
number  and  amount  of  private  bankruptcies  were  the 
largest  in  all  American  history. 

To  exclude  foreign  goods  is  simply  to  exclude  so  much 
wealth.  How  can  wages  be  made  any  higher  by  having  less 
wealth  to  divide  all  around?  It  will  be  answered  that 
domestic  production  will  be  reduced  by  as  much  as  the  im- 
ports amount  to.  This  is  absurd,  because  these  imports 
must  and  will  be  paid  for  immediately  by  American  goods 
produced  from  American  soil,  by  American  laborers  receiving 
the  American  rate  of  wages.  For  every  dollar's  worth  of 
foreign  goods  imported,  a  dollar's  worth  of  purely  American 


204  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

productions  must  be  exported.  It  is  absolutely  impossible 
that  any  American  laborers  could  be  deprived  of  employ- 
ment by  imported  goods  in  excess  of  the  number  who  will 
gain  employment  from  the  same  cause.  Reasons  have  been 
given  to  prove  that  many  more  will  gain  employment  in  this 
way  than  can  lose  it.  Therefore  wages  can  not  possibly  be 
reduced  by  free  trade,  while  it  is  almost  certain  that  they 
would  be  greatly  increased. 

THE  DIVERSIFICATION  OF  INDUSTRIES. 

The  gentleman  who  is  to  follow  in  this  course,  on  behalf 
of  protection,  abandons  the  wages  argument  as  quite  unten- 
able, and  plants  himself  on  the  older  Hamiltonian  theory  of 
the  necessity  of  restriction  upon  commerce  in  order  to 
secure  diversity  in  our  industries.  Passing  over  the  undeni- 
able fact  that  the  growth  of  wealth  and  rise  in  wages  were 
much  more  rapid  in  Calif  ornia  and  Australia,  when  they  had 
practically  only  one  industry,  than  they  ever  were  before  or 
since,  let  us  mention  only  a  few  of  the  diversified  industries 
which  every  one  can  see  must  exist  in  this  country  under 
absolute  free  trade. 

It  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  all  the  nations  of  the 
world  to  supply  a  hundredth  part  of  the  things  furnished  or 
services  rendered  by  our  farmers,  cotton-growers,  meat-pro- 
ducers and  packers,  fruit-growers,  bakers,  grocers,  tailors, 
dressmakers,  milliners,  carpenters,  masons,  plumbers,  build- 
ers, merchants,  retail  dealers,  teachers,  doctors,  clergymen, 
domestic  servants,  clerks,  railroad  men,  stage  and  wagon 
drivers,  repairers,  day  laborers,  etc.,  who  constitute  more 
than  nine  tenths  of  our  people. 

The  census  enumerates  nearly  500  different  employments 
deemed  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  worthy  of  separate 
statistics.  And,  as  it  does  not  distinguish  different  classes 
of  farmers,  of  cotton  manufacturers,  woolen  manufacturers, 
etc.,  from  each  other,  while,  as  we  all  know,  each  of  these 
classes  represents  many  distinct  branches  of  business,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  there  are  more  than  1,500  easily  distinguish- 
able and  distinct  forms  of  industry  in  our  country.  Of  these, 
more  than  1,400  would  be  carried  on  successfully  if  free  trade 
were  established  to-morrow,  and  the  worst  anticipations  of 
any  sensible  protectionist  were  realized.  What  need  is  there 
for  artificial  methods  of  diversifying  industries  when  we  can 
have  1,400  varieties,  without  any  government  interference  ? 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  205 

Indeed,  the  ablest  protectionists,  such  as  Governor  Hoyt, 
of  Pennsylvania,  have  abandoned  the  old-fashioned  argument 
that  foreigners  would,  under  free  trade,  supply  us  with  all 
or  with  any  considerable  part  of  the  manufactures  which  we 
need,  and  insist,  as  strongly  as  we  do,  that  nine  tenths  of  our 
manufactures  must  be  made  at  home  or  not  at  all.  But 
they  then  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  American  manufact- 
urers would  be  driven  out  of  business  altogether  by  foreign 
competition,  and  that,  as  foreigners  could  not  and  Americans 
would  not  supply  us,  our  people  would  have  to  go  without 
clothes  and  other  manufactures.  The  utter  absurdity  of  this 
conclusion,  however,  ought  to  be  palpable  to  a  school-boy. 
The  moment  that  all  or  most  American  manufacturers 
stopped  their  supply,  under  this  terrible  apprehension  of  a 
free-trade  panic,  the  deficiency  in  supply  would  become  so 
great  as  to  send  prices  up  tremendously.  Would  the  Amer- 
ican producers  be  so  silly  as  not  to  resume  work  forthwith 
under  such  prices  ?  The  simple  fact  is  that,  if  it  were  pos- 
sible for  this  imaginary  free-trade  panic  ever  to  occur,  shut- 
ting up  all  American  mills,  it  would  be  followed  within 
twenty-four  hours  by  such  a  rise  in  prices  as  would  cause  a 
buying  panic,  reopening  every  American  mill  and  setting 
its  machinery  at  work  with  greater  activity  than  ever. 

Indeed,  the  probabilities  are  decidedly  in  favor  of  a  greater 
diversity  of  industries  under  free  trade  than  under  a  restrict- 
ive policy.  For  so-called  protection  never  begins  with  cre- 
ating an  industry,  but  always  begins  with  destroying  or  crip- 
pling several.  It  prevents,  and  is  meant  to  prevent,  some 
American  citizens  from  carrying  on  occupations  from  which 
they  earn  their  living.  To  begin  with,  it  deprives  American 
ships  of  a  large  part  of  their  cargoes,  and  thus  drives  some 
of  them  out  of  business  altogether.  Then  the  demand  for 
new  ships  falls  off,  and  shipbuilders  are  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment. American  importers,  store-keepers,  cartmen, 
laborers,  salesmen,  and  clerks  are  thrown  out  of  work, 
because  the  foreign  goods  which  they  formerly  handled  are 
excluded.  Thousands  of  such  persons  are  thrown  out  to- 
day in  these  two  cities  in  this  very  manner.  Scores  of 
large  houses  are  going  out  of  business  now  in  this  way.  As 
three  quarters  of  the  things  which  are  or  would  be  imported 
are  used  as  materials  for  manufactures  of  some  kind, 
the  exclusion  of  these  things  throws  out  of  work  all  the 
mechanics  and  artisans  who  were  employed  in  working  them 
up.  The  very  first  effect  of  any  increase  of  protective  taxes, 


206  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

therefore,  is  to  throw  men  out  of  work,  to  reduce  wages, 
and  to  make  industries  less  diversified  than  before.  No 
doubt,  in  many  cases,  after  the  lapse  of  some  time,  Ameri- 
cans who  have  thus  been  thrown  out  of  work  learn  to  make 
at  home  the  things  which  they  used  to  import.  But  they 
are  not  as  familiar  with  this  new  work  as  they  were  with  the 
old ;  and  a  crowd  of  foreigners  pour  in,  to  whom  the  new 
business  is  familiar,  and  who  secure  all  the  best  places.  So 
well  recognized  is  this  fact  that  the  alien  labor  law  express- 
ly allows  foreign  laborers  to  be  imported  under  contract 
for  a  new  industry.  So  that,  whenever  the  tariff  really 
does  succeed  in  encouraging  a  new  industry,  and  thus  di- 
versifying our  industries,  all  the  benefit  of  it,  so  far  as 
workmen  are  concerned,  goes  to  freshly  imported  for- 
eigners. 

The  tariff  does  just  as  much  toward  diversifying  our  in- 
dustries as  would  a  cyclone  which  tore  down  our  factories 
and  diversified  the  labors  of  the  factory  hands  by  forcing 
them  to  turn  hod-carriers  and  helpers  to  more  experienced 
builders.  Its  benefits  are  of  the  same  kind  as  those  which 
have  come  from  the  twelve  thousand  bankruptcies  which 
have  followed  the  McKinley  tariff.  For  the  hundred  thou- 
sand people  thus  thrown  out  of  work  have  been  driven  to 
diversify  their  industries,  after  an  agreeable  vacation  from 
work,  from  wages,  and  from  the  usual  comforts  of  life. 

THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  CHEAPNESS. 

The  defenses  interposed  for  the  system  of  fetters  and 
chains  upon  commerce  are  so  contradictory  and  inconsistent 
as  to  make  it  almost  impossible  to  follow  them.  The  very 
same  orator  who  at  one  moment  tells  us  that  a  cheap  coat 
means  a  cheap  man  inside  the  coat,  at  another  moment  tells 
us  that  protection  has  made  coats  cheaper  than  they  ever 
were  before.  Another,  who  solemnly  informs  us  that  cheap 
goods  mean  cheap  men,  and  that  this  was  not  the  kind  of 
republic  which  our  fathers  builded  or  which  their  sons  will 
maintain,  is  jubilant  over  the  alleged  extreme  cheapness  of 
wire  nails,  steel  rails,  and  salt.  When  we  answer  one  of 
these  arguments,  we  are  reproached  for  not  having  answered 
the  other ;  and  if  we  answer  both,  a  third  is  brought  for- 
ward, with  apparent  entire  unconsciousness  of  the  fate  of 
the  first  and  second. 

Cheapness  is  not  a  bad  thing :  it  is  a  good  thing — an  ex- 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  207 


cellent  thing — a  grand  thing.  It  is  at  once  the  achievement 
and  the  life  of  modern  civilization.  The  most  costly  coats 
cover  the  most  worthless  men.  The  cheapest  coats  have  the 
most  valuable  men  inside  them.  The  coat  of  the  savage 
and  the  cloak  of  his  squaw  are,  in  comparison  with  their  re- 
sources, enormously  expensive.  They  have  cost  more  time 
and  labor  than  the  finest  coat  in  this  room  has  cost  its  maker 
or  owner.  Even  among  civilized  men  we  see  the  same  law 
working  out.  The  philosophers,  the  scientists,  the  invent- 
ors, the  really  great  statesmen,  all  wear  cheap  clothes.  The 
gamblers,  the  rakes,  the  idle  and  worthless  nobles  who  cum- 
ber the  earth,  all  wear  expensive  clothes.  The  more 
feather-headed  and  useless  is  a  woman,  the  more  expensive 
is  her  clothing.  Many  wise  and  sweet-hearted  women  are 
compelled  to  dress  themselves  in  more  costly  raiment  than 
they  desire,  because  they  fear  that  some  man,  unworthy  of 
their  love,  but  whom  they  can  not  help  loving,  will  not  love 
them  unless  he  sees  the  outward  signs  of  graceful  feminine 
feather-headedness. 

The  very  object  of  all  inventions,  of  all  progress,  of  all 
practical  science,  is  to  make  things  cheaper  and  cheaper. 
Civilization,  Christianity,  all  movements  for  the  uplifting  of 
mankind — even  ethical  societies — advance  only  as  cheapness 
advances.  For  cheapness  means  that  the  benefits  of  art, 
science,  literature,  morality,  and  religion  are  put  within  the 
reach  of  the  masses  of  men.  The  one  man,  Dr.  Campbell, 
who  forced  the  Queen's  printers  to  issue  cheap  Bibles  fifty 
years  ago,  did  more  for  the  cause  of  the  Christian  religion 
in  England  than  all  the  bishops  that  ever  lived.  The  man 
who  can  invent  a  method  of  building,  so  cheap  that  every 
family  can  afford  its  own  little  separate  home,  with  room 
for  the  children  to  play  and  the  mother  to  rest,  will  do  more 
for  the  promotion  of  good  morals  and  sound  religion  than 
all  the  preachers  and  Sunday-school  superintendents  com- 
bined. Every  step  toward  cheapness  is  a  step  toward  heaven. 
For  what  is  our  ideal  of  heaven  ?  Simply  a  place  where 
every  good  thing  may  be  had,  as  the  good  book  says,  "  with- 
out money  and  without  price." 

So  our  protectionist  friends  swiftly  eat  their  words  and 
declare  that  they  are  the  best  friends  of  cheapness,  and  that 
their  great  aim  in  taxing  us  one  hundred  per  cent,  is  to 
make  things  cheaper.  They  point  to  the  great  fall  which 
has  taken  place  in  all  manufactures  and  assume  that  this  is 
entirely  the  result  of  their  big 'taxes.  To  this  there  are  sev- 


208  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

eral  conclusive  answers,  only  part  of  which  can  be  even  sug- 
gested here. 

This  fall  in  the  price  of  manufactures  is  the  result  of 
constant  development  of  machinery,  and  goes  on,  all  over 
the  world,  wherever  machinery  is  largely  used,  whether  pro- 
tection or  free  trade  rules  the  state.  It  is  most  rapid  where 
the  nearest  approaches  are  made  to  free  trade.  Protection 
only  hinders  this  progress  toward  cheapness ;  and  the  sin- 
cere and  intelligent  advocates  of  protection  avow  that  it  is 
intended  to  do  so.  They  assign  reasons  for  this  policy 
which  it  would  take  too  much  time  to  follow  here.  Suffice 
it  to  say  now  that  obstructions  to  freedom  of  trade  never  did 
and  never  can  encourage  the  invention  of  new  machinery, 
and  therefore  never  promote  cheapness. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  decline  in  prices  has  been  more 
rapid  and  steady  in  England  under  partial  free  trade  than 
in  America  under  protection.  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
protected  manufactures  have  never  been  sold  here  as  cheaply, 
for  any  important  length  of  time,  as  in  England.  But  un- 
protected manufactures — that  is,  those  upon  which  either  no 
duty  has  been  levied,  or  one  entirely  inadequate  to  compen- 
sate for  the  tax  on  materials — have  fallen  in  price  here  as 
much  as  anywhere.  Thus  aluminum,  while  imported  free 
of  all  tax,  was  made  in  this  country  by  improved  processes 
until  it  has  fallen  from  $20  a  pound  to  $1.  Quinine,  under 
free  imports,  has  fallen  from  $3  an  ounce  to  40  cents,  and 
still  more  is  made  in  this  country  than  ever  before.  Road 
wagons  and  farming  machinery,  which  always  have  been  en- 
tirely independent  of  foreign  competition,  because  foreign- 
ers never  could  learn  to  make  what  we  want,  and  which 
have,  therefore,  derived  no  benefit  from  tariffs,  have  de- 
clined in  price  as  much  as  other  articles.  Tin  plates,  which 
have  never  been  made  to  any  appreciable  extent  in  this 
country,  because  the  materials  of  which  they  were  made 
were  too  heavily  taxed,  declined  in  price  until  the  McKinley 
bill  was  introduced,  as  much  as  any  other  kind  of  sheet  iron 
or  steel.  On  the  other  hand,  pig  iron,  bar  iron,  steel,  glass, 
and  many  other  highly  protected  products  have  fallen  in 
price  in  Europe  much  more  than  they  have  here.  Such 
cheapness  as  we  have,  therefore,  is  not  due  to  protection. 

Many  articles  the  cheapness  of  which  is  loudly  extolled 
are  not  even  now,  after  many  years  of  invention  and  im- 
provement, furnished  as  cheaply  to  us  as  we  might  have  had 
them  years  ago  under  free  trade,  and,  of  course,  not  at  all 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  209 

as  cheaply  as  they  might  now  be  had.  This  is  true  of  nearly 
all  forms  of  iron,  steel,  glass,  earthenware,  woolen  and  linen 
goods,  besides  many  others.  Much  of  the  boasted  cheapness 
of  clothing  consists  merely  in  the  degraded  quality  of  its 
materials.  Not  one  American  in  ten  wears  a  genuine  all- 
wool  suit.  Not  one  in  a  hundred  wears  such  a  suit  made 
of  American  cloth.  When  a  Massachusetts  free-trader  com- 
plained in  Congress  that  American  makers  of  all-wool  goods 
were  handicapped  by  heavy  taxes  on  wool,  the  leader  of  the 
protectionists  informed  the  House,  quite  correctly,  that  by 
far  the  most  of  "all-wool"  American  goods  consisted  of 
shoddy  and  cotton. 

The  enormous  and  permanent  cost  of  any  cheapness  which 
could  be  attained  through  protective  taxes  fails  to  be  under- 
stood, because  not  one  person  in  a  thousand  knows  anything 
about  the  effect  of  compound  interest.  Whatever  we  pay 
this  year  for  the  sake  of  getting  things  cheaper  in  future 
years  must  be  reckoned  at  compound  interest  until  the 
time  of  cheapness  arrives.  Then  we  must  gain  so  much  in 
cheapness  as  to  compensate  us  for  all  that  we  have  lost,  with 
compound  interest.  A  French  mathematician  has  calculated 
this  for  us.  At  the  end  of  twenty-five  years  of  protection, 
if  we  are  to  gain  anything  from  it,  we  must  save  three  and 
a  quarter  times  as  much,  every  year  and  forever,  as  the 
amount  which  we  annually  lost. 

Take,  then,  the  single  article  of  iron  and  steel.  The  price 
of  these  metals  has  been  increased  for  more  than  twenty-five 
years  to  the  amount  of,  at  the  very  least,  $40,000,000  annu- 
ally by  a  protective  tariff.  The  mere  Government  tax  has 
averaged  about  $15,000,000  a  year.  Well,  the  twenty-five 
years  are  up,  and  does  any  one  pretend  that  we  are  saving 
$130,000,000  a  year  on  the  prices  of  iron  and  steel  ?  On  the 
contrary,  we  are  still  paying  at  least  $30,000,000  a  year  for 
these  metals  in  excess  of  what  we  could  have  them  for  under 
free  trade.  And  it  is  only  within  the  last  two  years  that  we 
have  got  iron  as  cheaply  as  we  had  it  thirty  years  ago,  before 
this  wonderful  cheapening  tariff  tax  was  put  on. 

THE  HISTORICAL  ARGUMENT. 

Driven  completely  out  of  the  field  of  reason,  the  enemies 
of  freedom  take  refuge  in  the  historical  argument.  They 
say  that  free  trade  may  be  very  well  in  theory,  but  that  it 
will  not  work  in  practice.  They  assert  that  history  shows 


210  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

that  prosperity  lias  always  accompanied  the  slavery  of  com- 
merce, while  disaster  has  always  come  from  freedom.  They 
claim,  as  a  fact  beyond  dispute,  that  the  development  of 
manufactures  and  increase  of  wages  have  come  with  com- 
mercial restrictions  and  as  their  effect,  and  that  every  step 
toward  freedom  has  hindered  both. 

It  is,  in  the  first  place,  utterly  absurd  to  say  that  any  theory 
is  correct  which  will  not  work  in  practice.  If  the  enemies  of 
freedom  can  not  prove  in  argument  that  freedom  necessarily 
must  bring  with  it  those  disasters  which  they  pretend  that 
it  actually  does  bring,  they  simply  confess  either  that  they 
have  not  intellect  enough  to  explain  the  facts,  or  that  the 
facts  are  due  to  another  cause,  or  that  the  pretended  facts 
do  not  exist. 

In  the  next  place,  the  alleged  facts,  for  the  most  part,  do 
not  exist.  And  finally,  so  far  as  there  are  any  such  facts, 
they  are  due  to  other  and  totally  different  causes. 

No  disastei  has  ever  happened  to  this  or  any  other  com- 
munity, as  a  whole,  from  free  trade  or  from  any  step  in  that 
direction.  Disasters  have  befallen  individuals  from  that 
cause,  of  course.  Every  step  toward  freedom  of  any  kind 
brings  disaster  to  those  who  have  been  living  comfortably  on 
other  men's  shoulders.  Emancipation  brought  ruin  to 
slave-holders,  as  such,  but  it  has  brought  immense  prosperity 
to  the  Soutk.  So  the  abolition  of  protective  taxes  brings 
loss  to  those  who  have  been  making  fortunes  from  the 
tribute  of  their  fellow-citizens,  but  it  brings  gain  to  all  the 
others.  It  has  injured  a  very  few  hot-house  branches  of 
manufacture,  but  manufactures,  as  a  whole,  have  flourished 
under  freedom  more  than  ever. 

Disasters  have  happened  and  will  happen  to  the  entire 
community  under  free  trade  as  well  as  under  protection, 
without  doubt.  The  free-trader  does  not  pretend  to  have  a 
panacea  which  will  prevent  failures  of  crops,  pestilence, 
storms,  or  wild  speculation.  He  offers  you  nothing  but  your 
own  liberty.  Accordingly,  when  the  terrible  drought  of 
1854,  lasting  for  three  months,  diminished  our  wheat  crop 
and  destroyed  half  of  our  corn,  while  cattle  had  to  be 
slaughtered  wholesale  for  want  of  water,  no  free-trader 
expected  anything  but  that  which  happened — a  sudden  and 
severe  depression  of  business  until  the  next  crop  was  assured 
of  success,  after  which  prosperity  returned  in  greater  force 
than  ever.  Again,  in  1857,  when  the  wheat  crop  was  a 
comparative  failure,  when  a  wild  spirit  of  speculation  in 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  211 

vacant  land  and  premature  railroads  had  swept  over  the 
country,  and  wildcat  banks  poured  forth  a  worthless  cur- 
rency, neither  free  trade  nor  protection,  nor  anything  which 
human  wisdom  could  devise,  could  prevent  a  panic  from 
coming.  Yet,  if  the  banks  of  New  York  city  had  not 
acted  in  a  spirit  of  blind  selfishness,  and  had  shown  half  the 
courage  and  good  sense  which  they  showed  in  1890  or  in 
1884,  under  much  more  imminent  danger,  they  could  have 
passed  through  1857  without  suspension. 

And  the  panic  of  1857 — the  only  panic  which  ever  took 
place  under  a  low  tariff,  except,  of  course,  that  of  December, 
1860,  caused  solely  by  the  secession  of  the  South  and  the  evi- 
dent approach  of  war — passed  over  more  quickly  than  any 
of  the  panics  which  have  repeatedly  occurred  under  the 
high  tariffs  of  the  last  thirty  years.  Its  effects  were  not  vis- 
ible in  the  general  prices  of  the  next  year,  except  in  iron ; 
and  by  1859  all  manufactures,  including  iron,  were  going 
on  upon  a  greater  scale  than  ever.  The  years  1859  and  1860 
were  by  far  the  most  prosperous  years  which  our  country 
had  ever  known,  especially  in  manufactures.  This  is  the 
testimony  of  the  census,  and  also  of  Senator  Morrill  and 
President  Garfield. 

Contrast  with  this  brief  interruption  the  fearful  record  of 
the  five  years  of  high  tariff  from  1873  tp  1878 — each  worse 
and  worse — the  three  years  from  1883  to  1886,  and  the  black 
year  which  has  just  passed  under  the  McKinley  bill,  marked 
by  greater  destruction  among  business  men,  outside  of  the 
great  railroad  corporations,  than  any  year  in  American 
history. 

The  panic  of  1837  is  constantly  cited  by  those  who  know 
nothing  about  its  history.  It  occurred  under  a  tariff  higher 
than  the  Morrill  tariff ;  and  it  was  directly  brought  about 
by  the  enormous  surplus  which  had  accumulated  under  ex- 
cessive duties,  levied  avowedly  for  protection,  which  had  to 
be  squandered  in  loans  to  land  speculators,  to  get  rid  of  it. 
The  result  was,  first,  the  wildest,  most  gigantic,  and  most 
insane  speculation  in  vacant  land  ever  known  in  our  history, 
and  next,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  worst  collapse.  Such 
collapses  always  did  and  always  will  follow  excessive  specu- 
lators in  land  values,  which  usually  follow  inflations  of  the 
currency.  I  can  afford  to  be  candid  and  to  say  that  great 
panics  are  caused  by  currency  inflations,  almost  exclusively, 
and  that  protective  tariffs  are  generally  responsible  for  panics 
only  so  far  as  they  bring  about  an  accumulation  of  surplus 


212  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

and  a  consequent  inflation  or  contraction  of  currency.  But 
free  trade  never  is  or  can  be  the  cause  of  anything  of  the 
kind. 

The  steadily  increasing  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  United 
States,  in  spite  of  the  maintenance  of  a  high  tariff,  are 
easily  accounted  for  upon  free-trade  principles;  and  they 
can  not  be  accounted  for  in  any  other  way  consistently  with 
the  facts.  For  the  fact  is  that  this  country  has,  in  spite  of 
its  tariff,  a  greater  amount  of  free  trade  than  any  other 
country,  and  that  its  trade  grows  more  free  with  each  suc- 
ceeding year,  except  in  those  years  in  which  a  great  increase 
is  made  in  tariff  taxes,  the  effect  of  which  may  take  a  year 
or  two  to  neutralize. 

We  have  a  larger  territory  of  productive  land  than  any- 
other  civilized  nation.  This  territory  has  the  greatest  vari- 
ety of  products  of  almost  any  country  in  the  world.  There 
are  greater  differences  between  the  races  of  people  inhabit- 
ing it,  between  the  rates  of  wages,  the  rates  of  interest,  the 
amount  of  capital,  the  experience  and  skill  in  manufactures 
and  the  fitness  of  the  people  for  manufactures,  in  the  differ- 
ent districts  of  this  country,  than  those  which  exist  between 
this  country  as  a  whole  and  England,  or  between  England 
and  France.  The  reasons  which  might  be  adduced  against 
free  trade  between  different  sections  of  the  United  States  are 
much  stronger  than  any  which  can  be  adduced  against  free 
trade  between  America  and  Europe.  Yet  we  have  here  ab- 
solute free  trade  within  our  own  national  limits ;  and  we  all 
recognize  its  immense  value  so  well  that  we  would  fight  to 
the  death  rather  than  sacrifice  it. 

The  so-called  protection  afforded  by  a  tariff  is  simply  the 
effect  of  its  obstruction  to  trade.  The  absence  of  ships  and 
roads  would  afford  a  vastly  more  effective  protection  to  do- 
mestic producers  against  foreign  competition  than  the  most 
protective  tariff  ever  imagined.  With  every  new  steamship 
or  railway,  with  every  invention  which  cheapens  transporta- 
tion, with  every  new  facility  given  to  commerce,  the  protec- 
tion afforded  by  the  tariff  is  cut  down.  Sixty  years  ago  the 
cost  of  carrying  English  iron  to  Pittsburgh  was  $80  a  ton. 
It  can  now  be  sent  there,  duty  paid,  for  $10  a  ton.  Yet  the 
manufacture  of  iron  has  increased  around  Pittsburgh  more 
and  more  rapidly,  exactly  as  this  natural  and  most  efficient 
protection  was  destroyed  by  improvements  in  transportation. 
Thirty-one  years  ago,  under  a  duty  of  less  than  $2.50  per 
ton,  it  cost  much  more  to  get  English  iron  to  Chicago  than 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  213 

it  does  now  under  a  duty  of  $6.72.  Illinois,  Michigan,  and 
Wisconsin  are  far  less  protected  now  than  they  were  under 
the  lowest  tariff  of  American  history.  Yet  the  iron  manu- 
facture has  grown  at  a  tremendous  pace  under  this  rapid 
removal  of  the  old  protection.  Oddly  enough,  if  there  is 
any  truth  in  the  protective  theory,  the  manufacture  of  iron 
and  steel  is  dwindling  in  the  only  parts  of  our  country  where 
the  increase  of  duties  has  not  been  completely  neutralized 
by  natural  causes,  while  it  has  grown  with  giant  strides  in 
those  sections  where  the  high  tariff  of  the  last  thirty  years 
has  been  nullified  by  cheap  transportation. 

Moreover,  if  the  infant  industries  of  the  West  needed  pro- 
tection against  Europe,  they  needed  far  more  protection 
against  the  competition  of  the  experienced,  wealthy  manu- 
facturers of  the  Eastern  States,  with  all  the  advantages  of 
abundant  capital,  low  interest,  long  experience,  and  cheaper 
labor.  Yet  the  infants  of  the  West  have  paid  double  rates 
of  interest  and  fifty  per  cent  higher  wages,  and  still  have  so 
effectually  beaten  the  old-established  giants  of  the  East, 
under  absolute  free  trade,  that  three  fourths  of  the  iron  and 
steel  manufactures  have  gone  West  of  the  Alleghanies,  and 
the  iron  manufactures  of  the  East  are  said  by  one  of  their 
foremost  representatives  to  be  "  in  the  throes  of  dissolution." 
In  New  England  they  are  practically  dead.  Here  is  a  his- 
torical demonstration  that,  under  free  trade,  manufactures 
tend  to  go  where  wages  and  interest  are  high  and  the  busi- 
ness, as  well  as  the  country,  is  new. 

I  do  not  censure  protectionists  who  are  unmoved  by  the 
historical  argument,  because  I  could  not  be  convinced  by  it 
myself,  even  if  it  appeared  to  sustain  the  theory  of  restric- 
tion. The  historical  argument  has  always  been  used  effect- 
ively against  freedom;  but  no  true  lover  of  liberty  ever 
allowed  himself  to  be  moved  by  it.  In  ancient  times  the 
historians  and  philosophers  could  not  conceive  of  a  state 
without  slavery.  No  such  state  had  ever  existed  ;  and  there- 
fore none  such  ever  could  or  ought  to  exist.  In  my  early 
days  we  were  overwhelmed  with  historical  arguments  for 
slavery.  Statistics  showed  that  wealth  grew  rapidly,  that 
military  power  was  developed,  that  men  were  more  manly 
and  white  women  more  virtuous  under  slavery.  So,  in 
Europe,  history  was  made  to  show  the  vast  advantages  of 
despotism  over  freedom  Carlyle  devoted  his  utmost  energy 
to  setting  forth  the  folly  of  giving  votes  to  base  mechanics, 
and  the  supreme  wisdom  of  putting  the  life,  liberty,  and 


214  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

property  of  every  nation  at  the  absolute  mercy  of  one  wise 
man,  whose  wisdom  was  to  be  judged  only  by  himself.  Un- 
til a  very  recent  period,  all  the  literature  of  this  question  of 
liberty  was  on  one  side,  and  that  the  side  of  despotism  and 
slavery.  Yet  where  was  the  man  who  was  ever  convinced 
that  he  ought  to  be  a  slave  ?  Where  is  there  one  to-day 
who  will  acknowledge  that  he  could  be  convinced  by  any 
argument,  theoretical  or  historical,  that  he  ought  to  be  a 
slave,  and  that  his  wife  and  children  ought  to  be  the  chattels 
of  a  wise  master  ?  Where  is  the  American  who  could  be 
convinced  by  any  argument  that  this  country  should  be 
placed  under  the  government  of  a  benevolent  czar  ?  Where 
is  the  American  who  can  be  induced  to  listen  to  any  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  even  allowing  Congress  to  decide  whether 
he  shall  be  a  freeman,  whether  he  shall  have  the  right  to 
earn  a  living  in  his  own  way,  to  spend  his  own  earnings,  to 
select  his  own  clothing,  to  choose  his  own  religion,  to  marry 
the  woman  of  his  own  choice  ?  A  divinely  planted  instinct 
rebels  against  all  reasoning  upon  such  subjects,  and  de- 
mands liberty,  no  matter  what  historians,  or  philosophers, 
or  statesmen,  or  scientists  may  say  to  the  contrary.  And 
while  all  these  classes  of  wise  men  once  condemned  this 
universal  human  instinct  as  insane  and  absurd,  they  all 
now  agree  that  on  these  questions  the  plain  people  were 
right  and  the  wise  men  were  wrong. 

Arguments  against  human  freedom  in  any  form  and  upon 
any  ground,  whether  historical  or  otherwise,  are  necessarily 
false  and  empty.  It  would  not  be  of  the  smallest  impor- 
tance if  it  could  be  shown  conclusively  that  the  wealth  of 
the  community  increased  more  rapidly  under  slavery  than 
under  freedom ;  no,  not  even  if  the  slaves  themselves  en- 
joyed more  of  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life  than  they 
could  if  freemen.  The  moral  dignity,  the  mental  strength 
which  come  from  freedom,  and  which  can  never  come  under 
slavery,  far  outweigh  all  possible  considerations  on  the  other 
side.  It  is  just  as  certain  that  freedom  of  trade,  which  is 
an  indispensable  part  of  human  liberty,  is  a  right,  the  loss 
of  which  can  not  be  atoned  for  by  any  conceivable  increase 
of  wealth  either  to  the  community  or  to  the  individual.  It 
is  a  question  of  manhood,  which  admits  of  no  compromise. 
If  I  have  a  right  to  choose  my  own  method  of  earning  an 
honest  living,  I  have  an  equal  right  to  exchange  my  prod- 
ucts with  those  of  every  other  human  being.  To  forbid 
me  to  exchange  at  all  would  be  the  same  thing  as  to  forbid 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  215 

me  to  earn  anything,  for  my  products  have  no  value  what- 
ever if  they  may  not  be  exchanged.  To  put  restrictions 
upon  my  right  to  exchange  is  precisely  the  same  thing  as  to 
restrict  my  right  to  produce.  It  is  partial  slavery,  and 
should  be  resisted  and  denounced  as  such,  with  no  toler- 
ation for  any  of  the  plausible  excuses  by  which  total  and 
partial  slavery  have  in  all  ages  been  defended. 

FREE  TKADE  INDISPENSABLE  TO  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

I  have  thus  sketched,  with  extreme  brevity,  the  argument 
for  free  trade  from  the  standpoint  of  international  morals 
and  from  the  standpoint  of  general  national  prosperity. 
But  these  considerations  are  far  from  being  the  most  im- 
portant practical  ones,  because  the  human  instinct  for  free 
trade  is  strong  enough  to  override  obstructive  laws  and 
largely  to  nullify  all  tariffs.  Our  tariff  does  not  probably 
cost  us,  as  a  nation,  in  mere  loss  of  foreign  trade,  as  much 
as  ten  per  cent,  of  our  annual  earnings.  The  great  crime 
of  our  tariff  is  that  which  is  inherent  in  every  tariff.  It  is 
the  most  ingenious  and  effective  means  ever  devised  for  the 
plunder  of  the  poor  and  the  enrichment  of  the  rich.  I  do 
not  now  refer  merely  to  the  direct  robbery  of  the  poor  for 
the  benefit  of  the  rich,  through  so-called  protective  and  pro- 
hibitory measures.  I  refer  to  the  whole  system  of  indirect 
taxation,  which  is  founded  upon  tariffs  and  could  not  exist 
for  a  day  without  them. 

Indirect,  or,  as  I  always  prefer  to  call  it,  crooked  tax- 
ation, was  invented  in  days  when  the  mass  of  the  people 
had,  as  a  famous  bishop  boastingly  said,  "  nothing  to  do 
with  the  laws  except  to  obey  them."  It  owed  its  origin  to 
the  grasping  desire  of  despotic  governments  and  their  agents 
to  extort  as  much  as  possible  from  the  people.  The  wealthy 
classes  had  a  power  of  resistance  which  made  it  dangerous 
to  push  them  very  far.  The  tax-gatherers  attempted  to 
collect  direct  taxes  from  the  people  at  large,  but  found  the 
task  too  laborious  and  costly ;  just  as  in  Boston  to-day  the 
collection  of  poll-taxes  from  the  poor  costs  more  than  the 
entire  receipts  from  the  poorer  class.  Then  it  occurred  to 
them  that,  by  taxing  the  food  and  clothing  of  the  people, 
they  might  compel  the  poorest  to  pay  tribute  out  of  their 
misery.  As  soon  as  the  new  idea  was  put  into  practice  it 
was  found  that  taxes  upon  consumption  were  productive  of 
far  greater  revenue,  with  far  less  resistance  upon  the  part 
15 


216  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

of  tax-payers,  than  any  form  of  straightforward  taxation 
which  had  ever  been  tried.  So  it  was  very  acceptable  to 
tax-gatherers. 

After  a  short  experience  of  crooked  taxation,  rich  men 
everywhere  realized  that  it  relieved  them  from  most  of  the 
burdens  of  government;  and  as  they  were  gradually  ad- 
mitted into  some  share  in  public  administration,  they  in- 
sisted upon  the  abolition  of  direct  taxes  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  crooked  ones.  In  England,  prior  to  1660,  the 
greatest  part  of  the  revenue  was  raised  by  direct  taxes  upon 
property  owners.  When  Charles  II  was  restored  to  his 
throne  the  Parliament  made  a  bargain  with  him  to  sur- 
render all  the  royal  tribute  upon  land  owners,  in  consider- 
ation of  an  excise  tax  upon  articles  used  by  all  the  people. 
In  this  way  taxes,  of  which  every  penny  was  paid  by  the 
rich,  were  exchanged  for  taxes  nine  tenths  of  which  were 
paid  by  the  poor.  Parliament  consisting,  then  and  for  two 
centuries  afterward,  entirely  of  land  owners,  this  precedent 
was  followed  more  and  more,  until  nine  tenths  of  all  the 
revenues  were  raised  by  crooked  taxes,  paid  chiefly  by  the 
poor. 

In  France  and  Spain  the  same  methods  were  adopted, 
and  carried  even  further.  The  nobility  were  exempted 
from  all  direct  taxes ;  and  the  number  of  such  exempts  con- 
tinually increased.  Crooked  taxation  was  carried  to  its 
utmost  limits,  with  the  well-known  result  of  commercial 
and  political  ruin  to  both  nations,  until  France  shook  off 
her  fetters  in  1789.  The  very  first  step  which  the  new 
France  took  in  the  direction  of  liberty  was  to  sweep  away  a 
multitude  of  crooked  taxes  and  to  make  direct  taxation  uni- 
versal, although,  unfortunately  for  France,  not  exclusive. 

Taxes  upon  food,  clothing,  furniture,  buildings,  and  other 
necessaries  of  life,  whether  levied  by  a  tariif  upon  imports 
or  a  tax  upon  home  productions,  are  what  are  known  in 
economic  science  as  taxes  upon  consumption ;  and  it  is  in- 
evitable that  such  taxes  should  be  paid  principally  by  the 
poorer  classes  and  only  to  a  trifling  extent  by  the  rich. 
This  is  easily  understood  upon  a  few  moments'  reflection. 
If  bread  is  taxed,  the  40,000  families  who  own  half  the 
wealth  of  this  country  can  not  eat  more  bread  than  40,000 
day  laborers'  families,  if  as  much.  The  10,000,000  families 
who  own  less  than  one  quarter  of  the  national  wealth  will 
pay  five  hundred  times  as  much  of  the  bread-tax,  in  propor- 
tion to  their  means  of  payment,  as  will  the  40,000  favored 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  217 

ones.  A  single  hungry  newsboy  will  pay  as  heavy  a  bread 
tax  as  a  multi-millionaire.  But  allow  twenty  newsboys  as 
a  set-off  to  the  millionaire's  family  and  attendants,  and 
still  those  newsboys  will  pay,  in  proportion  to  their  wealth, 
500,000  times  as  much  as  Mr.  Astor  or  Mr.  Rockefeller. 
Allow  each  of  these  gentlemen  to  have  one  hundred  per- 
sonal attendants,  and  still  every  newsboy  would  pay  100,- 
000  times  as  much  of  the  tax,  in  proportion  to  his  means. 

What  is  true  of  bread  is  true,  to  a  slightly  less  degree,  of 
every  other  thing  which  is  made  the  subject  of  crooked 
taxation.  It  will  be  said  that  luxuries  are  taxed,  and  that 
such  taxes  are  paid  only  by  the  rich.  But  the  amount  of 
taxes  which  are  or  can  be  collected  upon  pure  luxuries,  used 
only  by  the  rich,  is  ridiculously  small,  compared  with  the 
entire  public  revenue.  What  are  called  luxuries  are  largely 
used  by  the  poor ;  and  the  attempt,  sometimes  made,  to 
justify  taxes  upon  the  poor  sewing  girl's  ribbons,  gloves,  bits 
of  lace  and  tiny  ornaments,  as  superfluous  luxuries,  is  an  act 
of  purse-proud  arrogance  and  impudence,  for  which  no 
words  are  hot  enough.  Beauty  and  ornament  are  necessa- 
ries to  every  woman ;  and  when  any  tax-eater  dares  to  assert 
that  poor  girls  have  no  right  to  these  simple  little  ornaments 
without  paying  tribute  to  his  avarice,  my  soul  is  filled  with 
such  burning  indignation  as  is  probably  unsuited  for  ex- 
pression before  an  ethical  society. 

There  never  has  been,  there  is  not  now,  and  there  never 
will  be,  any  system  of  taxation  upon  consumption  which 
does  not  bear  ten  times  as  heavily  upon  the  great  mass  of 
the  hard-working  people  as  it  does  upon  the  rich  and  pros- 
perous, or  which  does  not  bear  a  hundred  or  a  thousand 
times  as  heavily  upon  day  laborers  and  sewing  women  as  it 
does  upon  the  few  men  in  whose  hands  many  millions  are 
concentrated. 

The  result  is,  of  course,  that  the  small  savings  of  the 
hardest  working  class  are  almost  entirely  swept  away  by 
crooked  taxation,  while  the  savings  of  the  very  rich  are 
almost  entirely  untouched.  Year  by  year  the  concentra- 
tion of  wealth  in  few  hands  goes  on  at  ever-accelerating 
pace.  Grant  that,  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  the  work- 
ing classes  do  not  actually  fall  behind  in  prosperity,  yet 
they  do  fall  far  behind  relatively.  Suppose  the  10,000,000 
families  who  live  by  daily  toil  are  better  off  than  they  were 
thirty  years  ago  by  even  one  hundred  dollars  each ;  that 
would  only  give  them  $1,000,000,000  more  than  in  1860. 


218  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

What  has  become  of  the  remaining  $43,000,000,000  which 
Mr.  Blaine  assures  us  have  been  added  to  the  national  wealth  ? 
Give  them  each,  in  imagination — mechanics,  small  farmers, 
hod-carriers,  sewing  girls,  and  all — a  thousand  dollars  each 
of  the  increase  of  wealth — an  estimate  which  justly  makes 
you  laugh,  it  is  so  utterly  beyond  possibility.  What  has  be- 
come of  the  remaining  $33,000,000,000  ?  No  one  can  doubt 
that  seven  eighths  of  the  increase  in  our  national  wealth  has 
gone  to  much  less  than  one  eighth  of  the  people.  My  own 
judgment  is  that  more  than  nine  tenths  of  it  has  been  ab- 
sorbed by  less  than  one  fiftieth  part  of  the  people. 

This  is  the  invariable  and  inevitable  result  of  long-con- 
tinued crooked  taxation.  The  same  process  has  gone  on 
wherever  this  system  has  been  maintained.  It  has  always 
been  checked  when  the  proportion  of  direct  taxation  has  been 
increased.  Thus,  in  England,  although  the  disproportion 
between  the  rich  and  the  poor  is  still  enormous,  it  is  by  no 
means  so  great  as  it  was  before  a  large  number  of  crooked 
taxes  were  swept  away  and  a  small  amount  of  direct  taxes 
substituted.  The  reason  why  the  great  chasm  continues 
there  is  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  taxes  are  still  in- 
direct, levied  upon  consumption,  and  therefore  chiefly  paid 
by  the  poor. 

What  stands  in  the  way  of  this  greatest  of  all  conceivable 
blessings  to  our  own  American  people  ?  The  tariff.  Not 
merely  the  McKinley  tariff,  but  the  Mills  tariff.  Not  merely 
such  a  tariff  as  Speaker  Reed  forced  through,  but  also  any 
such  tariff  as  Speaker  Crisp  will  allow  to  go  through.  Not 
merely  a  Harrison  tariff,  but  a  Cleveland  tariff. 

What  is  the  first  condition  and  the  only  important  condi- 
tion to  the  deliverance  of  the  poor  from  this  plunder  ?  Free 
trade — absolute,  unqualified,  unconditional,  immediate.  For 
it  would  be  utterly  impossible  to  maintain  any  tax  upon 
domestic  productions  for  twenty-four  hours  after  the  adop- 
tion of  free  trade  in  foreign  productions.  Direct  taxation 
must  and  would  come  in  with  absolute  free  trade.  Wealth 
would  pay  all  taxes,  and  poverty  would  be  exempt.  The 
wealth  of  the  wealthy  would  be  but  little  diminished ;  but 
the  poverty  of  the  poor  would  be  rapidly  transformed  into 
comparative  wealth.  Conceive,  if  you  can,  of  the  tremen- 
dous strides  which  this  whole  country  would  take  toward 
prosperity  under  a  system  which  relieved  every  productive 
enterprise  from  the  burdens  of  taxation,  which  left  all  the 
earnings  of  every  farmer,  mechanic,  artisan,  and  laborer  free 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  219 

of  tax,  which  assured  to  the  working  classes  an  increased 
power  of  saving  to  the  extent  of  a  thousand  millions  annu- 
ally, or  left  them  free  to  add  half  that  amount  to  their  com- 
forts. What  an  impulse  there  would  be  to  industry !  What 
new  energy  would  fill  the  heart  of  every  willing  worker ! 
What  new  sense  of  security  would  be  given  to  the  untaxed 
manufacturer,  as  well  as  to  the  untaxed  merchant !  What  a 
vast  demand  for  new  laborers  in  new  forms  of  labor !  What 
new  prospects  would  be  opened  to  every  laborer  in  the  knowl- 
edge that  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  every  penny  which  he 
honestly  earned  would  be  absolutely  his  own ! 

It  will  be  asked  what  form  of  taxation  I  propose  in  place 
of  tariff  and  excise  duties.  I  do  not  feel  called  upon  now  to 
answer.  Any  form  of  absolutely  direct  taxation,  collected 
from  those  who  have,  and  not  from  those  who  have' not,  will 
produce  all  the  results  which  have  been  here  suggested 
Whatever  form  is  adopted,  it  must  be  such  as  can  not  possibly 
be  collected  over  again  by  the  original  tax-payer.  That  there 
are  such  methods  of  taxation  is  very  well  known.  When  the 
American  people  are  determined  to  have  free  trade,  their 
Congress  will  speedily  discover  a  method  of  direct  taxation. 

Because  I  believe  in  the  emancipation  of  the  American 
laborer  from  all  unequal  burdens ;  because  I  believe  that  he 
will  gain  a  thousand  times  more  through  justice  than  through 
charity;  because  I  believe  in  more  freedom  as  a  cure  for 
social  ills  rather  than  in  more  meddling ;  because  I  believe 
in  the  solidarity  of  the  human  race ;  because  I  believe  that 
alienation  between  the  laboring  classes  of  different  nations 
only  makes  them  the  ready  victims  of  tyrants  and  extor- 
tioners ;  because  I  believe  that  the  poor  can  never  gain  by  in- 
justice to  each  other  or  separation  from  each  other ;  because 
I  believe  that  the  prosperity  of  every  nation  inevitably  pro- 
motes the  prosperity  of  every  other ;  because,  with  all  my 
heart  and  soul,  I  hate  human  hatred  and  love  human  sym- 
pathy ;  because  I  love  the  whole  world,  and  America  the  best 
of  all — I  am  for  free  trade,  absolute,  unconditional,  and  im- 
mediate. 

For  absolute  free  trade  means  the  end  of  war,  the  end  of 
international  jealousies  and  quarrels,  the  union  of  honest 
toilers  in  all  lands,  the  solution  of  the  great  social  problem, 
the  emancipation  of  the  poor,  and  a  state  of  society  in  which 
the  rich  will  not  grow  poorer,  but  the  poor  will  become 
comparatively  rich. 


220  Taxation  and  Revenue. 


ABSTRACT   OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

HON.  ROSWELL  G.  HORR  : 

I  feel  somewhat  embarrassed  in  attempting  to  answer  such  a  la- 
bored and  elaborate  discourse  as  we  have  listened  to  to-night,  nor 
would  I  attempt  it,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  a  large  portion  of  the 
statements  made  by  the  gentleman  are  not  new  to  me.  It  is  a  kind 
of  straw  that  I  have  thrashed  over  and  over  again  until  I  have  grown 
weary  in  the  work.  There  is  no  half-way  place  between  Mr.  Shearman 
and  myself.  He  is  either  all  right  and  I  am  all  wrong,  or  else  I  am  all 
right  and  he  is  woefully  wrong,  don't  you  see  f  You  know  in  theology 
you  can  sometimes  get  a  sort  of  half-way  place.  If  Calvin  should  get 
a  location  a  little  too  warm  to  be  perfectly  comfortable  for  the  modern 
theologians,  without  attempting  the  abolition  of  the  place  entirely, 
they  would  find  some  way  of  moderating  the  temperature.  But  there 
is  no  such  half-way  place  between  Brother  Shearman  and  myself  here 
to-night.  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrine  of  protection.  I  believe 
in  it  because  I  believe  it  is  in  the  interest  of  the  United  States,  and  I 
am  for  this  nation  first  and  the  rest  of  the  world  afterward.  I  am  in 
favor  of  protection  because  my  method  of  theorizing  is  radically  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  my  friend  here.  I  only  regret  that  I  have  not 
time  to  take  up  this  subject  and  give  you  thoroughly  the  philosophy 
of  protection,  so  you  would  all  understand  where  my  friend's  free 
trade  would  lead  this  nation.  I  think  in  a  moment  I  can  state  to  you, 
so  that  you  can  see  it,  the  distinction  between  the  free-trader's  method 
of  levying  duties  and  the  protectionist's,  for  there  is  no  country  in  the 
world  that  has  free  trade  as  Mr.  Shearman  wants  it.  I  was  glad  he 
commented  on  the  difference  between  England  and  America.  Eng- 
land levies  her  duties  on  articles  which  she  does  not  produce,  and  we 
do  not.  No  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe  is  a  free-trade  nation,  no 
country  has  abolished  custom  houses  and  duties  entirely.  England 
levies  and  collects  every  year  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  by  tariff 
duties,  but  she  collects  them  on  articles  which  she  can  not  produce. 
She  collects  twenty  millions  on  tea,  which  she  can  not  produce  ;  twenty 
millions  on  tobacco  last  year ;  for  while  her  people  might  raise  it,  she 
prevents  by  law  the  production  of  tobacco  in  order  to  derive  a  revenue 
from  taxing  the  foreign  product.  The  protection  theory  is  the  oppo- 
site of  this.  On  luxuries  we  levy  duties  for  revenue  only ;  on  necessa- 
ries we  put  every  article  we  can  not  produce  ourselves  on  the  free  list- 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  221 

We  put  it  on  the  free  list,  because  by  the  English  method  the  tariff  is 
paid  by  the  people  of  England.  If  you  levy  a  duty  on  an  article  you  can 
not  prod  ace  in  your  own  country,  you  increase  the  tax.  Now,  we  don't 
levy  duties  that  way.  The  protectionist  says :  Put  all  articles  of  neces- 
sity that  we  can  not  produce  on  the  free  list.  "We  levy  our  duties  on 
articles  we  can  produce,  and  thus  stimulate  production  in  this  coun- 
try, encourage  competition,  and  so  reduce  prices.  My  friend  says  this 
is  not  so ;  if  you  do  that  it  is  just  like  a  duty  levied  on  an  article  you 
can  not  produce — it  is  also  a  tax,  it  raises  prices  and  robs  everybody 
who  consumes  the  article.  If  that  is  true,  if  we  increase  the  price  of 
the  article,  my  friend  is  right  and  I  am  wrong.  But  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  invariably  get  up  a  new  industry  and  cheapen  the  goods  for 
the  people  who  consume  them,  I  am  right  and  he  is  wrong.  Now,  the 
facts  are  on  my  side.  I  could  name  many  articles  which  have  been 
thus  cheapened  through  the  action  of  the  protective  tariff.  This  is  a 
fact,  and  one  fact  is  worth  a  bushel  of  theories.  Now,  for  instance,  we 
are  going  to  make  tin  plate  in  this  country,  and  to  make  it  cheaper. 
He  said  tin  plate  is  now  going  up,  on  account  of  the  McKinley  bill — I 
think  you  said  so,  I  know  you  did.  He  stated  that  tin  plate  had  been 
growing  cheaper  from  the  war  like  other  steel  goods.  He  hadn't  looked 
at  the  figures  correctly.  Tin  plate  hasn't,  been  growing  cheaper ;  all 
other  kinds  of  steel  and  iron  goods  have  been  growing  cheaper.  All 
other  steel  goods  have  gone  down ;  tin  plate  hasn't.  Why  *?  Because 
we  haven't  made  it.  We  have  been  in  the  grip  of  the  foreign  manu- 
facturer. We  have  now  put  a  duty  on  tin  plate  for  the  purpose  of 
building  up  that  industry  in  the  United  States,  and  we  are  going  to  do 
it.  Now,  my  friend  Shearman  will  deny  this  ;  the  moment  that  bill  is 
passed  he  goes  into  his  study,  gets  out  his  Times  and  his  Evening 
Post,  and  by  the  light  of  his  free-trade  theories  decides  that  this  can 
not  be  done ;  therefore  he  tells  you  it  can  not  be  done.  Now  he  be- 
lieves it.  I  believe  he  is  mistaken.  I  have  been  around  a  little,  you 
know,  and  I've  seen  some  things  with  my  own  eyes.  I  have  been  all 
over  the  United  States  trying  to  find  out  whether  we  were  making  tin 
plate  or  not ;  the  newspapers  said  we  weren't ;  I  found  out  that  we 
were.  I  have  been  in  nine  factories  where  they  were  making  it,  and 
after  I  have  seen  a  ton  made  it  would  take  a  free-trader  more  than  an 
hour  to  convince  me  that  we  are  not  making  it.  Here  in  this  city  of 
Brooklyn  is  an  enormous  factory  being  erected  by  Summers  Brothers, 
that  is  to  cost  $250,000.  I  went  to  that  establishment,  and  went 
through  it,  and  found  out  they  are  going  to  make  tin  plate  here  in 
spite  of  all  the  theories.  It  will  give  employment  to  many  workers  in 
this  great  city.  Now,  I  will  make  the  issue  plain  between  myself  and 
Mr.  Shearman  1  We  are  going  to  make  tin  plate  in  the  United  States, 


Taxation  and  Revenue. 

cheaper  than  it  has  ever  been  sold  in  this  country,  within  the  next 
twenty  years,  and  we  will  make  it  cheaper,  not  by  lessening  the  wages 
of  labor,  but  by  our  American  ingenuity  in  devising  new  and  im- 
proved machinery.  If  we  don't,  I  will  never  preach  protection  again, 
provided  Brother  Shearman  will  stop  preaching  free  trade  if  we  do. 
In  one  of  the  factories  in  this  city  you  will  find  a  little  machine  nearly 
completed  that  will  do  work  which  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean  it 
takes  twenty  men  to  do.  We  are  going  to  furnish  labor  in  the  United 
States  for  thirty  thousand  human  beings,  and  furnish  it  for  better 
wages  than  they  can  get  in  any  other  spot  on  the  globe.  And  there 
are  twenty-nine  other  factories  being  built  under  this  bill,  and  yet  my 
friend  here  informed  you  that  industry  would  be  killed  by  protection. 
I  get  tired  of  hearing  that  kind  of  talk. 

Mr.  Shearman  labored  to  show  that  cheapness  is  a  good  thing.  My 
friend's  statement  is  true,  but  with  one  limitation;  and  that  is  so 
much  more  important  than  the  statement  that  I  wonder  he  forgot  it.  A 
cheap  overcoat  is  good,  unless  it  makes  a  cheap  man  inside  it.  Cheap- 
ness is  too  cheap  when  it  makes  cheap  men  and  women.  You  must 
make  it  so  that  the  men  who  do  the  labor  can  live  decently  and 
respectably.  We  don't  want  men  so  cheap  that  they  can't  earn  a  good 
comfortable  living  in  this  country. 

Why  do  people  keep  coming  here  from  free-trade  England  if  they 
are  better  off  in  that  marvelous  good  country  ?  Why  do  they  stay 
here  when  they  find  we  have  a  tariff  ?  Why  is  it,  if  this  country  is  in 
such  a  bad  way  as  Mr.  Shearman  says  it  is,  and  all  because  of  the  tariff  ? 
Capital  is  robbing  labor  in  this  country,  we  are  told,  yet  they  come  by 
thousands ;  but  after  they  get  here,  after  they  find  out  how  they  are 
being  robbed,  and  when  they  recollect  what  good  times  they  used  to 
have,  why  don't  they  go  back  f  They  come  here  because  wages  are 
better  here  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world — because  a  man  has  a 
better  chance  to  make  a  comfortable  home  for  his  wife  and  children. 
Nobody  knows  it  better  than  my  friend  here.  People  come  to  this 
country  because  we  have  a  higher  grade  of  labor ;  we  pay  better  wages 
than  are  paid  anywhere  else — [Mr.  SHEARMAN  :  "  Except  in  Australia  "] 
and  that  is  the  reason  I  believe  in  a  protective  tariff ;  it  keeps  up  the 
grade  of  labor,  and  that  is  the  important  thing. 

Mr.  Shearman  says  nobody  wants  to  sell,  but  everybody  wants  to 
buy.  Now,  1  have  heard  that  before,  and  if  I  didn't  know  anything 
about  the  facts  I  might  believe  it ;  but  I  have  been  in  a  place  where  I 
wanted  to  sell  a  great  deal  more  than  I  wanted  to  buy,  and  I  think 
we've  all  been  occasionally  in  such  a  place. 

You  state  that  this  year  has  been  disastrous  to  commerce.  Have  you 
studied  the  statistics  ?  You  say  we  are  doing  less  business.  The  fact 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  223 

is,  on  the  contrary,  we  have  increased  both  exports  and  imports.  We 
have  increased  both.  Imports  have  been  increased  and  the  amount  of 
duty  paid  has  decreased.  You  say  that  since  the  McKinley  bill  went 
into  effect  the  country  has  been  growing  worse  and  worse  off,  and  that 
business  is  being  ruined  and  the  outlook  is  fearful.  I  say  there  has 
never  been  a  more  prosperous  year  in  the  history  of  the  country.  Now, 
I  can  see  how  my  friend,  from  his  office,  where  he  is  studying  free- 
trade  theories,  can  make  that  statement,  but  I  have  been  in  twenty- 
one  of  the  States  since  the  McKinley  bill  was  passed ;  I  have  talked 
with  business  men  everywhere ;  and  the  opposite  is  true.  We  have 
had  one  of  the  best  years,  since  that  bill  went  into  effect,  since  the  na- 
tion was  founded.  Mortgages  have  been  paid  off,  and  the  people  are 
becoming  prosperous,  and  in  spite  of  this  bill.  He  could  not  have  said 
what  he  did  if  he  had  seen  what  I  have  seen  all  over  the  United  States. 

I  object  to  this  free-trade  business.  It  compels  a  man  to  be  con- 
stantly running  down  his  own  country.  He  is  constantly  laboring 
for  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  first  part  of  Mr.  Shearman's  lecture  was 
beautiful,  but  practically  it  doesn't  mean  very  much.  Practically,  men 
have  to  take  care  of  themselves  first  in  this  world,  and  if  they  don't, 
there  won't  anybody  else  do  it  for  them  ;  and  so  with  nations.  Now, 
1  won't  train  with  a  crowd  that  any  time  we  try  to  do  anything  in  this 
country  says  we  can't  do  this  and  we  can't  do  that.  If  it  is  linen  we 
want  to  make,  American  flax  is  not  good ;  if  we  try  to  make  glass,  the 
sand  is  not  the  right  kind  ;  and  yet  we  put  a  duty  on  plate  glass,  and 
we  are  selling  to-day  the  finest  plate  glass  made  on  the  face  of  the 
globe  for  seventy  cents  a  square  foot  which  used  to  cost  two  dollars 
and  twenty-five  cents  before  we  put  that  tariff  on ;  for  we  have  found 
out  that  we  were  shipping  sand  by  the  barrel-load  to  France  and 
England  to  make  plate  glass  with,  and  it  is  the  very  best  kind  of  sand. 
No  matter  what  we  try  to  do  in  this  country,  there  is  always  something 
wrong. 

My  rule  is  to  look  over  the  entire  list  of  articles  produced,  and  when 
I  can  find  an  article  like  tin  plate  I  find  out  what  it  is  made  of,  and 
find  that  the  bulk  of  it  is  iron  or  steel.  Then  I  say  we  have  plenty 
of  iron  and  steel ;  how  about  tin  ?  That  is  an  imported  article,  so  we 
put  it  on  the  free  list.  Then  I  say,  Why  don't  we  make  our  own 
tin  plate  t  Why  not  send  and  buy  the  little  amount  of  tin  and  do  the 
rest  ourselves  <?  One  great  reason  is  that  our  manufacturers  pay  two 
or  three  times  as  much  for  labor  as  workmen  are  paid  on  the  other 
side,  and  we  levy  the  duty  to  protect  them  in  paying  good  wages,  and 
we  know  they  will  introduce  new  machinery  and  in  twenty-five  years 
we  would  make  better  tin  plate  than  has  ever  been  made.  Is  there 
any  other  method  that  is  sensible  ?  ' 


224  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

Mr.  Shearman  talks  a  great  deal  about  the  moral  side  of  the  question 
Now,  that  just  suits  me.  I  am  always  glad  to  discuss  this  side  of  the 
question.  I  have  a  passion  for  morality.  The  ethical  side  is  just  what  I 
am  after.  Now,  I  am  against  free  trade  and  in  favor  of  protection  for  this 
reason :  1  want  the  United  States  run  on  a  plan  of  morality  that  will 
furnish  a  place 'for  every  human  being  in  it,  give  every  man  a  chance 
to  be  a  good  citizen  and  have  a  decent  home.  I  want  to  diversify 
industry  so  that  every  man  can  have  an  occupation  suited  to  his  taste 
and  talents.  If  there  is  a  fellow  who  has  got  genius  and  a  cunning 
hand  so  that  he  can  make  a  watch,  I'd  have  a  place  where  he  can  go 
and  make  it.  If  he  can  make  a  locomotive  or  a  steam  engine,  I  would 
have  a  place  where  he  could  go  and  make  that.  I  would  furnish  good 
work  for  every  human  soul.  Every  man  who  builds  up  a  new  industry 
in  this  country  does  the  nation  a  wonderful  amount  of  good.  He  is  a 
public  benefactor,  and  I  would  rather  have  his  chance  in  the  next 
world  than  that  of  one  who  preaches  doleful  sermons  about  free  trade. 
I  merely  wish  to  suggest  to  this  audience  that  when  you  have  said  all 
and  done  all,  there  are  two  sides  to  this  question ;  that  is,  if  there  is 
any  side  for  my  friend  Shearman.  They  have  been  laboring  on  this 
free-trade  business  ever  since  I  was  a  boy,  and  they  don't  seem  to  be 
making  many  converts  yet.  I  have  heard  it  preached  from  my  earliest 
memory.  You  would  think,  if  what  my  friend  says  is  true,  that  every- 
thing that  is  bad  would  disappear  before  this  system  of  free  trade. 
Then  why  isn't  there  a  free-trade  nation  on  the  globe  I  Even  Eng- 
land is  beginning  to  weary  of  her  kind  of  free  trade.  The  British 
Minister  tells  us  that,  to  his  great  regret,  free  trade  is  losing  ground  and 
protection  is  sweeping  the  whole  world. 

I  have  said  all  I  expected  to,  but  not  all  I  would  like  to,  for  the  sub- 
ject is  truly  inexhaustible.  I  would  like  to  show  you  where  we  have 
cheapened  articles  all  over  the  United  States  and  furnished  homes  for 
people  in  this  country.  I  have  been  in  more  than  two  hundred  insti- 
tutions and  asked  the  men  what  wages  they  were  getting.  Some  had 
worked  abroad.  Take  a  man  who  has  worked  in  both  places ;  he  knows, 
and  I  would  take  his  testimony  before  any  other.  I  have  talked  with 
them  all  over  the  country,  and  every  one  of  them  tells  me  that  they 
are  here  because  their  wages  are  such  that  they  can  live  better  and 
enjoy  blessings  they  could  not  anywhere  else,  and  because  it  is  the 
place  for  workingmen  to  do  well.  I  am  going  to  stand  by  the  system 
that  enables  them  to  say  this  about  our  country  and  to  tell  the  truth. 

PROF.  H.  J.  MESSENGER: 

I  find  myself  in  an  unfortunate  position  in  this  discussion.  There 
seems  to  be  a  place  for  both  the  free-trader  and  the  protectionist,  but 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  225 

not  for  me.  While  sympathizing  with  revenue  reform,  I  confess  that 
I  would  rather  see  the  McKinley  bill  stand  than  to  see  immediate  and 
unconditional  free  trade.  A  sudden  change  like  that  would  be  op- 
posed to  evolutionary  principles.  Evolution  implies  a  gradual  change 
of  conditions.  Some  of  Mr.  Shearman's  positions  are  not  assailable ; 
some  of  Mr.  Horr's  are  also  unassailable.  There  are  two  extreme 
schools  in  regard  to  every  debatable  question ;  they  have  been  repre- 
sented here  to-night.  The  work  of  science  is  to  take  the  truths  in  each 
of  the  extreme  schools  and  harmonize  them  into  a  new  and  deeper 
truth.  All  great  questions,  by  the  law  of  relativity,  have  to  be  com- 
promised in  their  practical  solution.  In  the  first  part  of  this  discourse 
the  lecturer  dealt  with  the  problem  before  us  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ;  this  is  to-day  an  impracticable  standpoint. 
Under  certain  conditions,  the  general  principle  and  demand  for  pro- 
tection from  outside  aggression  is  dominant  and  necessary.  The  tariff 
is  one  form  of  this  protection.  Evolution  means  differentiation  and 
integration,  and  this  is  true  in  the  evolution  of  nations  as  well  as  of 
individuals.  In  the  simplest  forms  of  life  there  is  no  specialization  of 
functions  or  organs ;  in  the  higher  forms,  specialization  of  functions  is 
developed,  and  each  organ  does  its  part  in  the  economy  of  life.  So 
with  states  and  nations.  The  nation  which  illustrates  the  highest 
civilization  is  that  in  which  the  functions  are  most  highly  differen- 
tiated and  specialized,  and  it  is  right  to  throw  around  it  such  barriers 
as  are  necessary  to  protect  it  from  social  disintegration.  It  is  not 
right,  however,  to  aim  at  the  injury  of  other  nations  in  our  tariff  regu- 
lations. We  can  not  injure  another  person  without  injuring  ourselves, 
and  so  also  of  nations.  The  tendency,  therefore,  should  be  constantly 
toward  freer  trade,  and  this  tendency  should  be  pushed  as  far  and  as 
rapidly  as  is  consistent  with  increasing  differentiation  and  specializa- 
tion. 

DR.  ROBERT  G.  ECCLES  : 

If  the  lecturer  had  followed  the  scientific  method  he  would  have 
shown  the  evils  as  well  as  the  benefits  of  free  trade ;  the  method  which 
he  adopted  has  resulted  in  showing  only  the  good.  There  must  be  a 
debit  as  well  as  a  credit  side  to  every  account ;  the  credit  side  only  has 
been  shown  to-night.  There  must  be  evils  connected  with  every  socio- 
logical state  whatever,  and  the  true  sociologist  would  endeavor  to  as- 
certain these  evils.  In  a  scientific  discussion  both  sides  must  be  shown ; 
the  good  and  evil  must  be  balanced.  From  a  biological  standpoint, 
much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  protection.  The  lecturer  has  spoken  of 
free  trade  as  akin  to  the  free  circulation  of  the  blood  in  living  creat- 
ures. But  the  analogy  would  demand  that  there  should  be  circulation 


226  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

not  only  in  the  individual  organism,  but  between  all  individuals  of  the 
same  species.  This  we  know  is  not  the  fact.  In  monocellular  organ- 
isms there  is  no  exchange  of  blood  with  one  another ;  but  in  a  multi- 
cellular  organism  there  arises  a  community  circulation,  confined  to 
the  limits  of  the  individual  structure.  Society  is  a  picture  of  the 
multicellular  individual.  There  must  be  a  community  circulation. 
Will  society  progress  more  rapidly  by  absolute  free  trade?  This 
might  be  so  if  all  peoples  constituted  one  community,  under  one  head ; 
but  as  long  as  we  are  separated  by  racial  and  national  boundaries,  free 
circulation  can  only  be  maintained  within  racial  or  national  limita- 
tions. As  to  the  questions  of  liberty,  the  tariff  does  not  interfere  with 
that  at  all.  You  may  trade  with  any  one  you  please.  The  only  pro- 
viso is  that  in  certain  cases  you  must  pay  taxes  for  the  privilege.  The 
Government  must  be  supported ;  the  taxes  must  be  raised  in  some 
way,  and  it  makes  no  essential  difference  whether  you  pay  them  in 
one  way  or  another.  A  tariff  increases  the  population  of  a  country. 
The  tax  on  tin  plate,  for  instance,  causes  workmen  in  that  industry  to 
come  to  this  country,  and  it  raises  wages  because  it  creates  a  demand 
for  those  workmen.  The  lecturer  stated  that  some  fourteen  hundred 
industries  could  be  maintained  in  this  country  under  free  trade.  This 
may  be  true ;  but  it  would  not  be  had  free  trade  been  established  ear- 
lier in  our  history.  Free  trade  would  have  given  us  a  nation  of  farm- 
ers, and,  as  farming  requires  more  land  than  other  industries,  our 
population  would  have  been  more  sparse.  Protection  has  covered  the 
country  with  railroads  in  all  directions,  binding  the  nation  together. 
Free  trade  would  have  given  us  railroads  only  East  and  West,  carry- 
ing farm  products  to  the  seaboard  to  interchange  with  Europe,  and 
thus  the  different  sections  would  have  remained  disunited  and  insular. 

DR.  LEWIS  G.  JANES  : 

With  the  judicial  fairness  proper  in  a  presiding  officer,  I  propose  to 
make  a  brief  criticism  on  each  of  the  principal  speakers.  In  largely 
ignoring  the  historical  method,  and  affirming,  in  substance,  that  evolu- 
tion can  be  of  little  assistance  in  the  settlement  of  this  vexed  question, 
I  think  Mr.  Shearman  gravely  errs.  We  do  not  study  the  lessons  of 
history  in  order  to  copy  and  imitate  the  methods  of  the  past,  but  rather 
to  observe  social  tendencies,  to  obtain  pointers  in  the  direction  of  future 
progress,  which  will  enable  us  to  work  with  Nature,  in  harmony  with 
the  trend  of  her  great  evolutionary  forces,  and  not  against  them. 
Studied  in  this  spirit,  history  seems  to  me  not  only  a  fruitful  source  of 
information  upon  topics  of  this  character,  but  the  only  safe  and  relia- 
ble guide.  And  history,  thus  studied,  is  but  another  name  for  evolu- 
tion. In  neglecting  this  field  of  study,  and  basing  his  argument  so 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  227 

exclusively  upon  a  priori  data,  I  feel  that  the  lecturer  has  unnecessa- 
rily weakened  his  case. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  was  greatly  surprised  to  hear  Mr.  Horr's  affir- 
mation that  the  past  year  has  been  the  one  of  our  greatest  national 
prosperity.  This  statement  is  contrary  to  my  own  experience,  and  to 
the  testimony  of  the  practical  men  of  affairs  with  whom  I  have  come 
in  contact.  A  successful  manufacturer — a  consistent  Republican  and 
protectionist  in  politics — declared  in  my  presence  yesterday  that  only 
the  unexampled  prosperity  of  our  agricultural  interests — our  abundant 
crops — had  saved  us  from  the  most  serious  financial  crisis  of  recent 
years.  I  believe  this  statement  is  substantially  true.  The  past  year 
has  not  been  one  of  great  business  prosperity,  but  the  contrary. 

MR.  SHEARMAN,  in  closing :  As  to  the  superiority  of  personal  obser- 
vation in  obtaining  data  for  the  discussion  of  this  subject,  in  a  country 
like  ours,  it  is  impossible  for  one  man  by  mere  personal  observation  to 
gain  a  correct  idea  of  the  course  of  business  and  industry.  I  do  not 
set  any  value  on  the  mere  individual  observation  of  any  one  man — 
least  of  all  myself — in  these  matters.  One  man's  experience  is  only 
one  rill  in  thousands  which  go  to  make  up  the  great  current  of  statis- 
tical information.  I  may  not  have  had  the  advantages  of  Mr.  Horr  in 
going  around  among  the  rich  manufacturers  and  hearing  from  them 
that  things  are  about  as  they  want  them.  But  I  have  taken  the  reports 
of  the  great  commercial  agencies — Bradstreet's  and  Dun's — concerns 
which  have  thousands  of  correspondents  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
I  find  that  in  the  twelve  months  following  the  passage  of  the  McKin- 
ley  bill  (and  that  is  what  I  said — not  "  the  past  year,"  as  Mr.  Horr 
assumed)  these  agencies  report  12,000  failures  throughout  the  country, 
representing  liabilities  of  over  $225,000,000.  And  I  repeat  my  state- 
ment that  this  was  the  most  disastrous  business  year  we  have  ever 
had.  [A  voice :  "  Give  us  the  pro  rata  figures."]  If  you  mean  the 
amount  of  failures  as  compared  with  the  population,  there  were  only 
two  years — 1857  and  1873 — in  which  the  record  (omitting  the  rail- 
roads) was  blacker  than  the  year  of  which  I  speak.  As  Dr.  Janes  has 
said,  we  were  saved  from  the  greatest  financial  crash  in  our  history  by 
the  enormous  crops  of  the  past  year  and  the  unprecedented  demand 
for  them.  The  condition  of  the  iron  trade  is  a  good  index  of  business 
in  general,  and  there  was  a  great  falling  off  in  the  production  of  pig 
iron  in  the  year  after  the  McKinley  bill  was  passed.  As  to  the  reduc- 
tion in  the  price  of  plate  glass,  in  1861,  when  the  duty  was  first  put  on 
it,  it  was  selling  here  for  $1.10  a  square  foot,  and  for  80  cents  in  Europe. 
Now  we  can  get  it  here  in  large  quantities  for  70  cents,  while  in 
Europe  it  sells  for  35  or  40  cents.  And  this  result  we  have  obtained 


228  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

by  taxing  ourselves  for  thirty  years  at  the  rate  of  100  per  cent.  As  to 
the  tin  factories,  they  must  have  imported  help,  and  with  the  improved 
machinery  of  which  Mr.  Horr  has  spoken  they  can  give  very  little  em- 
ployment to  American  labor.  If  each  of  these  factories  costs  as  much 
as  the  one  in  Brooklyn  ($250,000) — a  wildly  extravagant  figure  for  the 
average  of  these  factories — all  of  them  would  cost  $7,500,000.  Now 
we  are  taxing  ourselves  $16,000,000  a  year  to  build  these  factories.  So 
we  could  afford  to  pay  the  entire  cost  of  building  them  and  yet  save 
$8,000,000  a  year  by  the  operation,  if  we  abolished  the  tariff  on  tin 
plate.  But  we  are  asked :  "  What  nation  has  adopted  free  trade  1 " 
This  is  the  same  old  argument  I  heard  on  the  slavery  question  when  I 
was  a  boy.  I  regard  the  tariff  question  as  one  of  liberty  and  honesty. 
Shall  we  seriously  discuss  whether  on  the  whole  it  is  better  to  be  honest  ? 
There  have  been  men  who  could  not  see  the  advantages  of  liberty. 
Noble  men  held  slaves.  Conscientious  men — far  better  than  I — per- 
secuted horribly  their  fellow-creatures  for  religion's  sake.  So  sincere 
and  conscientious  men  are  protectionists.  I  have  never  doubted  that. 
But  if  you  really  want  a  historical  argument  of  that  sort  I  am  pre- 
pared at  any  time  to  give  you  seven  times  as  many  facts  and  figures  as 
my  friend  Horr,  and  twenty  times  as  many  as  my  friend  Dr.  Eccles. 

As  to  Prof.  Messenger's  position — I  have  to  answer  three  protection- 
ists to-night,  for  I  don't  call  that  man  a  free-trader  who  would  rather 
live  under  the  McKinley  bill  than  have  it  abolished  at  once — I  would 
rather  the  McKinley  bill  should  remain  the  law  than  have  any  such 
half-hearted  changes  as  Prof.  Messenger  proposes.  I  am  just  as  much 
an  evolutionist  as  any  of  you,  but  evolution  doesn't  always  work  slowly. 
If  Prof.  Messenger  had  a  toothache,  would  he  tell  the  dentist  that  he 
wanted  a  slow,  evolutionary  process  of  cure  that  would  take  three 
quarters  of  an  hour  instead  of  curing  it  in  ten  seconds  I  If  you  were 
to  abolish  the  tariff  to-morrow,  the  cable  would  be  crowded  with  orders 
for  European  goods.  There  would  be  a  quick  advance  of  prices  there 
and  a  slight  decrease  here.  More  people  would  be  supplied  with  com- 
forts and  luxuries,  while  the  manufacturers  would  do  a  much  greater 
business  at  the  lower  prices.  All  of  Europe  could  not  supply  one 
eighth  of  our  wants  while  supplying  her  own,  and  it  is  folly  to  think 
of  her  supplanting  us.  The  way  to  bring  about  an  era  of  prosperity 
such  as  we  have  never  known  is  by  getting  rid  of  our  hampering  tariff 
laws  at  once,  and  inaugurating  an  era  of  complete  commercial 
freedom. 


TAXATION  AND  REVENUE 

THE   PROTECTIONIST  VIEW 


BY 

GEORGE  GUNTON 

AUTHOR  OF  WEALTH  AND  PROGRESS,  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIAL  ECONOMICS,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Carey's  Principles  of  Social  Science,  Past,  Present,  and  Future,  and 
Harmony  of  Interests ;  Thompson's  Political  Economy,  and  Protection 
to  Home  Industry ;  Gunton's  Principles  of  Social  Economics ;  Hoyt's 
Protection  and  Free  Trade ;  Kelley's  Industrial  and  Financial  Ques- 
tions; Roberta's  Government  Revenue;  Patten's  Economic  Basis  of 
Protection,  and  Premises  of  Political  Economy ;  Byles's  Sophisms  of 
Free  Trade ;  Tariff  Messages  of  Republican  Presidents. 


TAXATION   AND    REVENUE. 

THE  PROTECTIONIST  VIEW. 
BY  PROF.  GEORGE  GUNTON. 

IT  is  generally  assumed  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution  is 
synonymous  with  the  doctrine  of  laissez  faire,  and  that  con- 
sistent evolutionists  should  therefore  be  free-traders.  I 
shall  venture  this  evening  to  controvert  that  position  and 
endeavor  to  show  that  protection  is  a  fundamental  principle 
in  the  law  of  evolution,  and  that  in  economics  and  sociology 
scientific  protection  is  the  true  means  of  securing  the  "  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest." 

It  is  commonly  urged  in  favor  of  the  free-trade  view  that 
it  has  the  support  of  the  intellectual  class,  and  that  only 
short-sighted  shop-keepers  and  manufacturers  who  have  a 
selfish  end  in  view  favor  protection.  There  is  considerable 
truth  in  this  claim,  but  is  there  not  something  peculiar  and 
even  suspicious  about  a  position  in  which  all  the  learning  is 
on  one  side  and  the  common-sense  men  of  affairs  on  the 
other?  Whenever  we  see  abstract  theory  arrayed  against 
universal  experience,  we  are  warranted  in  seriously  question- 
ing the  validity  of  the  theory.  After  all,  human  experience, 
as  recorded  in' the  history  of  society,  is  the  safest  basis  for 
generalization  and  the  only  basis  scientific  evolution  can  ac- 
cept. Society  has  been  wrong  many  times,  but  I  doubt  if 
all  the  human  race  were  ever  all  wrong  at  once,  and  persisted 
in  being  wrong.  Whenever  mankind  persists  in  doing  a 
certain  thing,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  some  beneficial 
results  are  derived  from  that  policy.  Protection  is  a  policy 
that  all  mankind  have  adopted  in  some  form  or  other,  and 
no  nation  has  yet  entirely  abandoned  it. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  from  this,  however,  that  those  who 
have  advocated  a  protective  policy  have  always  understood 
the  economic  principle  underlying  it.  On  the  contrary,  they 
have  acted  from  their  sense  of  interest.  Indeed,  it  is  a  part 
of  the  general  history  of  social  evolution  that  we  do  things 
before  we  understand  them.  Nearly  all  scientific  generali- 
zation is  the  philosophical  explanation  for  what  has  previ- 
16 


232  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

ously  occurred.  In  short,  man  first  does  things,  and  then 
learns  to  explain  why  he  did  them. 

The  traditional  theory  of  political  economy  of  which  free 
trade  is  a  cardinal  doctrine  proceeds  in  an  almost  opposite 
direction.  It  begins  with  certain  postulates  or  assumptions 
which  it  calls  general  principles,  and  so  long  as  these  postu- 
lates remain  intact  it  pays  very  little  attention  to  experi- 
ence. 

Two  weeks  ago  the  lecturer  representing  the  other  side 
presented  the  free-trade  view  in  its  extremest  aspect,  and  he 
did  it  in  the  old-fashioned  metaphysical  style.  He  affirmed 
without  qualification  that  absolute  free  trade  is  the  essence 
of  freedom,  the  embodiment  of  the  Golden  Rule,  which 
makes  all  mankind  brethren,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  in- 
sist that  no  protectionist  could  be  a  Christian. 

Now,  I  take  substantially  the  opposite  view,  and  contend 
that  protection  is  a  fundamental  principle  in  society,  and,  if 
it  were  necessary  to  extend  the  discussion,  I  might  say  in  all 
nature.  There  is  no  feature  in  man's  social  development 
which  is  more  continuous  and  marked  than  his  constant 
effort  to  protect  himself,  his  family,  his  property,  and  his 
nation,  and  here  is  the  radical  difference  between  the  evolu- 
tionist's or  protectionist's  view  and  the  free-trade  view. 

From  the  free-trade  view  national  development  is  com- 
paratively unimportant  and  national  boundaries  are  regarded 
as  arbitrary  limitations  which  should  be  obliterated.  This 
is  contrary  to  the  whole  trend  of  social  evolution.  Every 
movement  in  the  progress  of  society  is  toward  greater  indi- 
viduality of  form  and  diversity  of  character,  and  therefore  a 
great  distinctiveness  in  the  characteristics  of  groups  or  na- 
tions. If  we  could  multiply  this  audience  a  million  times, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  two  faces  alike,  but  if  we  should 
take  a  like  number  of  Chinese  they  would  be  so  similar 
that  it  would  be  difficult  to  distinguish  men  from  women ; 
and  if  we  go  still  lower  into  the  tribal  conditions  we  find  the 
uniformity  even  greater  and  the  individuality  less.  This  is 
true  throughout  the  whole  range  of  physical  and  social 
phenomena.  Therefore,  instead  of  nations  being  unimpor- 
tant, they  are  the  embodiments  of  individuality  in  sections 
of  the  human  race ;  they  develop  types  of  civilization. 

The  preservation  of  a  nation  is  therefore  just  as  important 
to  individual  development  as  the  opportunity  of  classes  in 
gymnastics  is  to  muscular  growth.  I  suspect  that  even  the 
most  inveterate  free-trader  would  admit  that  we  should 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  233 

have  an  army  and  navy  to  protect  ourselves  against  Russia, 
Mexico,  England,  or  any  other  nation  from  invading  this 
country.  But  why  do  we  want  to  maintain  our  individuality 
as  a  nation  ?  Of  what  importance  to  civilization  or  humanity 
is  the  United  States  unless  it  furnishes  some  opportunities 
for  advancing  civilization  that  could  not  exist  without  it  ? 
If  this  progress  would  go  on  just  as  well  if  England  and 
America  were  merged  together  or  if  Russia  took  possession 
of  this  country,  there  would  be  no  reason  whatever  for  main- 
taining the  integrity  of  our  public  institutions. 

The  evolutionary  reason  for  maintaining  the  Republic  is 
that  it  furnishes  conditions  for  diiferentiating  influences  in 
the  social  life  of  the  people.  Now,  the  social  status  of  any 
people  depends  chiefly  upon  their  industrial  life.  Agricult- 
ural and  raw-material  producing  occupations  that  isolate 
laborers  are  non-socializing  and  non-civilizing.  Who  ever 
heard  of  an  agricultural  nation  being  in  the  front  rank  of 
civilization?  Throughout  human  history  civilization  has 
always  followed  the  lines  of  manufacturing  and  commercial 
industry,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  this  class  of  industry 
creates  the  industrial  and  social  environment  necessary  to 
intellectual  political  advance. 

Where  in  our  own  country — in  any  country — are  the  ad- 
vanced ideas,  where  are  the  centers  of  civilization,  where  are 
the  social  incentives  for  new  methods  and  intellectual  fric- 
tion and  investigation  and  philosophizing  ?  Are  they  on  the 
rural  farms ;  are  they  out  on  the  ranch ;  are  they  in  the 
Black  Hills ;  are  they  where  the  population  is  scattered,  and 
people  see  each  other  once  a  week  or  once  a  month  ?  No. 
They  are  in  the  centers  where  the  people  touch,  where  their 
industries  bring  them  together,  and  where  they  become  in- 
terdependent on  each  other  for  everything  they  do  and 
have ;  where  social  life  is  brightened  automatically  by  con- 
tact with  their  fellow-men.  The  only  force  that  brightens 
human  beings  is  contact  with  other  human  beings.  Isola- 
tion is  the  very  source  of  stagnation  and  social  arrest. 

As  a  part  of  the  claim  that  free  trade  is  the  only  policy  that 
can  secure  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  we  are  told  that  if 
America  is  superior  to  other  nations  it  ought  to  prove  its 
superiority  by  its  ability  to  survive  without  paternal  aid. 
This  is  another  metaphysical  assumption.  While  it  is  true 
that  no  policy  can  be  regarded  as  scientific  which  does  not 
enable  the  fittest  to  survive,  it  should  be  remembered  that  it 
is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  superiority  and  fitness  to  be 


234  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

able  to  provide  the  means  for  one's  own  protection  and 
preservation.  In  biology  this  protection  or  test  of  fitness 
sometimes  takes  the  form  of  special  organic  functioning 
and  concomitant  muscular  power,  as  in  the  teeth  and  claws 
of  the  tiger.  In  society  it  frequently  takes  the  form  of 
devising  weapons  of  defense,  as  armies  and  navies ;  in  civil 
life,  the  institution  of  a  police  force,  a  judiciary,  and  jails ; 
and  in  industry  it  sometimes  takes  the  form  of  tariffs  and 
restrictions  to  immigration.  To  be  able  to  devise  a  means 
of  protection  through  political  institutions  is  surely  as  good 
evidence  of  fitness  as  is  the  ability  to  protect  one's  self  by 
brute  force. 

Indeed,  that  form  of  social  organization  or  political  polity 
is  most  fit  to  survive  which  devises  means  for  its  own  pro- 
tection without  using  physical  violence.  Every  higher  form 
has  to  develop  its  own  means  of  protection,  and  when  it 
reaches  the  point  where  it  can  not  devote  all  its  energies  to 
self -protection,  it  differentiates  special  protective  functions. 
In  society  this  is  what  may  generally  be  designated  as  the 
policeman  function ;  whether  it  takes  the  form  of  army  and 
navy,  courts  of  justice  or  policemen,  it  is  all  the  same,  differ- 
ing only  in  detail  of  application.  Now,  this  specialized  pro- 
tective function  in  society  is  always  called  into  use  to  protect 
a  superior  against  a  lower  form  of  social  organization.  It 
was  not  until  a  certain  proportion  of  society  had  learned 
to  devote  its  energies  to  industry  that  armies  as  a  separate, 
completely  differentiated,  civilized  class  were  organized ;  and 
policemen  and  courts  of  justice,  which  are  much  more 
modern  forms  of  protection,  were  not  developed  until  a 
considerable  number  of  individual  citizens  had  advanced 
past  the  point  of  fighting  their  own  battles  individu- 
ally. In  other  words,  it  was  not  until  individual  citi- 
zens had  risen  above  the  barbarism  of  individually  con- 
ducting their  own  protection  that  society  differentiated  a 
collective  protective  function.  And  this  became  necessary 
because  as  people  devoted  themselves  to  more  civilized  pur- 
suits, they  lost  the  capacity  to  successfully  use  brute  force. 
Hence,  to  the  extent  that  force  was  necessary  to  protect 
them,  it  had  to  be  furnished  by  society,  otherwise  progress 
would  have  been  arrested.  To  insist  that  the  superior  shall 
continue  to  protect  themselves  on  the  plane  and  by  the 
methods  of  the  inferior  is  to  insist  that  they  shall  descend  to 
a  lower  level.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  insist  that  the 
inferior  shall  deal  with  the  superior  only  by  rising  to  the 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  235 

higher  plane  of  the  latter,  we  then  make  the  progress  of  the 
inferior  necessary  in  order  to  enable  them  to  have  any  rela- 
tions with  the  superior,  which  not  only  preserves  the  higher 
but  tends  constantly  to  develop  the  lower. 

Economic  protection  is  but  the  scientific  application  of 
this  principle  to  the  industrial  intercourse  of  nations. 
Properly  understood,  a  protective  tariff  is  the  economic  use 
of  the  policeman  function.  It  is  important  to  carefully  ob- 
serve the  line  of  demarkation  between  the  inferior  and  su- 
perior in  the  economic  development  of  nations.  The  civili- 
zation of  any  nation  is  superior  or  inferior  according  to  the 
social  well-being  of  its  own  people — not  of  its  royal  courts, 
its  aristocracy,  or  its  literary  class,  but  of  the  masses.  This 
is  indicated  by  the  rate  of  real  wages  or  the  permanent  daily 
income  of  the  laboring  classes.  Since  the  difference  in  real 
wages  measures  the  difference  in  civilization,  in  order  to 
apply  the  protective  principle  to  industry  so  as  to  guard  a 
higher  civilization  against  the  influence  of  a  lower,  we  must 
protect  the  wage-level  of  the  more  advanced  country. 

How  can  this  be  accomplished  through  the  use  of  the  tax- 
ing power  without  interfering  with  the  industrial  freedom 
and  restricting  the  survival  of  the  fittest  ?  I  answer :  By 
imposing  a  duty  on  foreign  products  equivalent  to  the  dif- 
ference in  wages  or  the  labor  cost  of  their  production.  This 
would  practically  announce  that  all  who  desire  to  sell  their 
products  in  our  market  must  compete  on  our  level  or  not  at 
all.  If  their  wages  are  lower  than  ours,  they  must  pay  the 
difference  as  a  premium  for  the  privilege  of  entering  our 
market.  Their  competition  would  then  be  made  to  depend 
on  their  superior  economic  skill,  just  as  is  the  competition 
between  American  producers. 

If  this  principle  were  adopted  in  all  countries,  then  the 
home  market  in  every  country  would  be  open  to  the  pro- 
ducers of  all  nations  on  the  basis  of  its  own  wage-level. 
The  markets  of  the  world  would  then  be  free  to  all  who 
could  compete  with  the  home  producer  through  the  use  of 
superior  machinery  or  economic  methods;  that  is  to  say, 
through  economy  in  machinery  and  natural  forces,  and  not 
through  the  use  of  mere  barbarism  or  lower-paid  labor. 
Lower  prices  resulting  from  lower  civilization  are  uneco- 
nomic. There  is  nothing  so  dear  as  barbarism,  nothing  so 
cheap  as  civilization.  Nothing  is  cheap  to  any  nation  that 
degrades  its  people  in  order  to  obtain  it.  The  test  of  econo- 
my is  the  production  by  methods  which  shall  make  wealth 


236  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

cheap  without  cheapening  man — methods  that  make  wealth 
cheap  by  science,  that  make  Nature  do  the  work,  thus  allow- 
ing civilization  to  advance  and  real  cheapness  to  be  attained. 
If  England,  or  France,  or  Germany  can  produce  more 
cheaply  than  America  on  that  basis,  they  should  have  our 
market,  but  on  no  other  conditions.  Only  better  machinery 
represents  more  scientific  and  economic  methods  of  industry, 
and  that  is  an  indication  of  fitness  to  survive.  He  is  most 
fit  to  serve  mankind  who  serves  them  best.  And  in  eco- 
nomics this  always  depends  upon  using  the  most  civilized 
methods  in  doing  the  work. 

Our  free-trade  friends  insist  that  the  great  thing  needed 
is  cheapness,  but  they  make  the  mistake  of  confounding 
cheapness  with  low  prices,  whereas  the  two  are  not  neces- 
sarily identical  at  all.  Suppose,  for  illustration,  shoes  were 
fifty  cents  a  pair  in  India  and  wages  ten  cents  a  day,  and 
two  dollars  a  pair  in  America  with  wages  two  dollars  a  day. 
It  would  take  five  days'  labor  to  obtain  a  pair  of  shoes  in 
India  and  only  one  day's  labor  to  obtain  a  pair  in  America. 
The  shoes  would  be  five  times  as  dear  in  India  as  in  America, 
although  the  price  was  seventy-five  per  cent  less.  Dear  ness 
and  cheapness  are  measured  not  by  pennies  but  by  labor. 
Wealth  is  only  cheap  when  a  large  amount  of  it  can  be  ob- 
tained for  a  day's  work.  No  matter  how  few  pennies  I  may 
give  for  a  thing,  if  I  give  more  labor  to  obtain  it,  then  it  is 
dearer.  Nothing  really  brings  cheapness  which  does  not 
give  lower  prices  without  lower  wages.  Therefore,  to  supply 
our  products  at  a  lower  price  by  virtue  of  lower  wages  is 
simply  to  lower  our  civilization  without  cheapening  our 
wealth.  They  have  low  prices  and  low  civilization  in  South 
America,  China,  India,  and  Russia,  but  they  have  dear 
wealth,  and  therefore  are  poor.  Since  nothing  can  cheapen 
wealth  which  does  not  reduce  the  cost  of  production  with- 
out diminishing  real  wages,  it  follows  that  the  true  economic 
basis  for  international  competition  is  the  wage-level  of  the 
dearer-labor  country.  A  tariff  policy  based  upon  this  prin- 
ciple would  protect  a  superior  against  injury  from  an  in- 
ferior, without  affording  the  slightest  monopolistic  impedi- 
ment to  economic  rivalry.  Instead  of  restricting  wholesome 
competition,  this  would  simply  protect  the  competitive  op- 
portunity for  the  "  fittest  to  survive,"  the  test  of  fitness 
always  being  the  ability  to  furnish  low-priced  wealth  with- 
out employing  low-priced  labor.  Under  such  conditions 
the  products  of  foreign  countries  could  never  undersell  those 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  237 

of  home  industry,  except  when  their  lower  prices  are  due  to 
the  use  of  superior  labor-saving  and  not  labor-cJieapening 
methods.  Thus  competent  producers  would  have  access  to 
all  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  only  the  incompetent  or 
less  economic  would  be  excluded.  In  short,  this  would 
guard  every  home  market  against  the  products  of  a  lower 
civilization  without  depriving  it  of  the  benefits  of  a  higher 
civilization. 

Under  these  conditions  no  country  would  require  a  tariff 
against  America.  India  would  not  fear  competition  from 
the  United  States,  because  the  United  States  has  nothing 
to  give  that  is  not  better  than  what  India  has.  If  we  per- 
mitted England  to  undersell  us  by  reason  of  her  lower  wages, 
we  should  be  compelled  to  readjust  our  industrial  condi- 
tions to  the  English  basis  or  else  give  England  the  monop- 
oly of  the  American  market.  This  would  simply  be  handi- 
capping our  manufacturers,  because  the  element  by  which 
they  would  be  defeated  is  something  that  our  very  civiliza- 
tion has  excluded.  Hence  America  would  be  permanently 
injured.  Whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  if  America  under- 
sold the  English  in  England,  English  industry  would  have 
to  be  readjusted  on  the  American  basis,  which  is  a  basis  of 
superior  methods,  and  consequently  England  would  be  per- 
manently benefited  by  the  change  and  nobody  would  be  in- 
jured. 

There  are  three  important  reasons  why  home  markets  are 
superior  to  foreign  markets,  .and  why  domestic  trade  and 
manufacture  should  always  be  encouraged  in  preference  to 
foreign  :  (1)  Foreign  trade  is  essentially  wasteful,  because  it 
necessarily  tends  to  maximize  instead  of  minimizing  the 
distance  between  the  raw  material  and  the  factory,  and  be- 
tween the  factory  and  the  market.  For  instance,  before  the 
development  of  cotton  manufacture  in  this  country  our 
cloth  was  made  in  England.  The  raw  cotton  was  produced 
in  South  Carolina,  sent  to  England  to  be  manufactured, 
then  brought  back  to  America.  Consumers  of  cotton  cloth 
in  this  country  had  to  pay  the  cost  of  transporting  it 
twice  across  the  Atlantic,  which  was  so  much  waste  made 
necessary  by  uneconomic  conditions.  To  carry  a  product 
six  thousand  miles  in  order  to  deliver  it  to  customers  a 
hundred  miles  away  is  to  perpetuate  uneconomic  ways  of 
working. 

Nothing  can  justify  such  waste  except  absolute  inability 
to  avoid  it.  The  mere  fact  thai  England  could,  under  ex- 


238  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

isting  conditions,  do  manufacturing  at  so  much  less  cost  than 
we  as  to  be  able  to  pay  the  transportation  both  ways,  was 
no  economic  justification  for  our  continuing  to  buy  cotton 
cloth  from  her  instead  of  developing  the  methods  for  mak- 
ing it  ourselves.  Indeed,  such  a  policy  would  have  been  as 
obviously  uneconomic  as  to  have  persisted  in  using  hand- 
looms  and  stage  coaches  in  preference  to  factories  and  rail- 
roads. The  question  in  that  case  was  not,  Can  England, 
under  existing  conditions,  supply  our  cotton  cloth  cheaper 
than  we  can  make  it  ?  But  can  we,  by  any  change  of  con- 
ditions, develop  the  means  for  making  it  as  cheaply  for  our- 
selves as  she  can  make  it  for  us,  and  thus  eliminate  for  all 
time  the  unnecessary  cost  of  double  transportation  ?  This 
question  was  answered  in  the  affirmative,  and  to-day  cotton 
cloth  can  be  made  as  cheaply  here  as  in  England,  and 
more  cheaply  than  in  any  other  country,  notwithstanding 
our  wages  are  so  much  higher.  Consequently,  that  eco- 
nomic waste  is  saved  not  only  to  us,  but  to  all  future  genera- 
tions, to  say  nothing  of  the  social  advantage  of  developing 
the  industry  in  our  own  country. 

It  may  be  laid  down  as  a  fundamental  principle  in  eco- 
nomic production  that  all  commodities  should  be  manufact- 
ured as  near  as  possible  to  the  raw  material,  or  the  market 
for  finished  products.  If  a  nation  possesses  the  raw  material 
for  a  given  article,  it  should  always  develop  the  facilities  for 
manufacturing  the  finished  product  for  its  own  consump- 
tion ;  and  any  public  policy  which  does  not  tend  to  promote 
this  end  is  inimical  to  national  development.  Therefore, 
instead  of  constantly  encouraging  foreign  trade,  it  should 
ever  be  a  cardinal  principle  in  statesmanship  to  develop  do- 
mestic trade  and  home  manufacture. 

(2)  Another  disadvantage  of  foreign  as  compared  with 
home  markets  is  that  they  divorce  the  economic  interest  of 
employers  and  the  employed.  To  the  extent  that  any  pro- 
ducers in  a  given  community  rely  upon  a  foreign  market 
for  their  wares  will  employers  cease  to  have  any  economic 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  their  own  laborers.  Whenever 
employers  are  independent  of  the  laborers  of  their  own 
country  as  consumers  they  have  an  apparent  interest  in  keep- 
ing down  wages,  because,  under  those  circumstances,  every 
reduction  in  wages  is  an  increase  of  profits.  Suppose,  for 
instance,  American  shoe  manufacturers  sell  all  their  product 
in  Europe  at  a  dollar  a  pair  ;  it  is  quite  obvious  that  if  they 
can  obtain  labor  at  ten  per  cent  less  it  would  be  so  much 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  239 

addition  to  their  profit,  because  a  reduction  in  wages  would 
in  no  way  affect  the  consumption  of  their  shoes,  they  being 
sold  in  another  country  where  wages  remain  the  same. 

Under  a  home-market  regime  the  case  is  very  different, 
because  in  domestic  trade  there  are  no  influences  that  mili- 
tate against  the  material  welfare  of  laborers  which  do  not 
react  upon  that  of  the  employing  class.  The  obvious  reason 
for  this  is  that  no  market  for  factory-made  products  can  be 
permanently  sustained  without  consumption  by  the  laboring 
classes.  Consequently,  when  the  employing  class  in  any 
country  have  to  rely  upon  a  home  market  to  sell  their  prod- 
ucts, their  own  prosperity  depends  directly  upon  the  con- 
suming capacity,  and  hence  the  wages,  of  laborers  in  their 
own  country.  Under  such  conditions,  whatever  reduces 
wages  and  impairs  the  purchasing  power  of  laborers  dimin- 
ishes the  market  and  undermines  the  prosperity  of  employ- 
ers. Thus,  under  a  home-market  regime,  an  employer's  suc- 
cess is  dependent  upon  and  commensurate  with  the  pros- 
perity of  the  laboring  classes,  because  their  consumption  de- 
termines the  market  basis  for  his  production. 

(3)  The  third,  and  by  no  means  the  least  important,  rea- 
son why  home  markets  are  preferable  to  foreign  markets  is 
that  they  more  surely  promote  the  diversification  of  produc- 
tion and  the  socialization  of  employments.  One  of  the  pop- 
ular notions  regarding  foreign  trade  is  that  the  prosperity 
of  a  nation  is  indicated  by  the  amount  of  its  exports — that 
it  is  rich  by  what  it  sells.  This  is  a  great  mistake.  Noth- 
ing indicates  the  prosperity  and  well-being  of  a  people  but 
what  they  consume.  A  nation  may  produce  extensively 
and  export  largely  and  the  mass  of  its  people  remain  very 
poor.  To  the  extent  that  more  manufactured  products  are 
exported  from  any  country  than  imported  to  it,  are  its  prod- 
ucts not  consumed  by  those  who  produce  them.  The  pros- 
perity of  a  nation,  therefore,  can  not  be  measured  by  the 
wealth  it  exports  to  other  countries,  nor  by  the  wealth  it 
receives  through  the  profits  of  foreign  trade,  but  only  by 
the  wealth  its  own  people  consume,  since  that  is  all  which 
really  enters  into  their  social  life.  Thus  the  extent  of  do- 
mestic consumption — the  home  market — is  the  real  meas- 
ure of  the  social  status. 

Moreover,  a  home  market  supplies  a  double  social  current, 
whereas  a  foreign  market  for  the  same  products  only  supplies 
a  single  current.  In  addition  to  the  socializing  effect  of  manu- 
facture upon  industry,  the  home  use  of  manufactured  articles 


240  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

tends  to  increase  and  diversify  the  market  for  such  products 
by  the  social  conditions  necessarily  connected  with  their  con- 
sumption. For  instance,  the  consumption  of  carpets,  pict- 
ures, millinery,  etc.,  implies  more  or  less  refined  social  rela- 
tions, which  stimulate  not  only  the  desire  for  more  of  the 
same  kind  of  things,  but  also  create  tastes  and  desires  for 
fresh  varieties  of  products.  Thus,  while  manufacturing 
industries  always  socialize,  their  socializing  influence  is  al- 
ways greater  where  they  produce  for  a  home  market.  This 
must  not  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  foreign  markets  are  a 
disadvantage  under  all  conditions,  but  only  that  wherever 
the  development  of  a  home  market  is  possible  it  is  always 
preferable  to  a  foreign  market.  In  other  words,  foreign 
trade  is  ultimately  a  disadvantage  to  a  nation  unless  it  can 
take  place  without  substituting  simpler  for  relatively  com- 
plex industries  or  lowering  wages,  and  should  be  encouraged 
under  no  other  conditions. 

Perhaps  the  most  specious  argument  employed  in  favor 
of  a  free-trade  policy  is  that  it  is  cosmopolitan  in  its  charac- 
ter, that  it  rises  above  local,  sectional,  or  even  national  con- 
siderations, treating  all  mankind  as  brethren,  while  protec- 
tion is  pre-eminently  a  local  policy  that  endeavors  to  dis- 
criminate against  the  people  of  all  other  countries  in  favor 
of  its  own.  It  may  be  admitted  that  any  policy  which  pro- 
motes the  welfare  of  one  country  at  the  expense  of  another 
is  essentially  unphilosophic,  and  the  best  policy  for  any- 
country  is  the  one  whose  beneficial  effects  are  most  uni- 
versal. The  economic  character  of  a  public  policy,  however, 
should  never  be  judged  by  its  immediate  or  temporary  effect, 
but  always  by  its  permanent  and  ultimate  influences.  Meas- 
ured by  this  standard,  it  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  a  pro- 
tective policy  is  pre-eminently  cosmopolitan  in  its  character. 

It  may  be  regarded  as  a  self-evident  proposition  that  he 
who  would  help  others  must  first  develop  the  best  in  him- 
self, since  not  to  develop  his  own  capacities  is  to  limit  his 
own  usefulness.  The  most  altruistic  effects  are  usually  pro- 
duced by  efforts  to  broaden  and  elevate  our  own  social  life, 
because  every  addition  to  our  own  life  embraces  more  of  the 
efforts,  interests,  and  well-being  of  others.  In  proportion 
as  the  interests  of  others  become  identified  with  our  own  will 
our  efforts  be  directed  to  promoting  their  welfare  as  well  as 
our  own.  In  other  words,  in  proportion  as  we  become 
socially  interdependent  do  our  efforts  become  altruistic  and 
cosmopolitan.  Indeed,  it  is  only  by  increasing  man's  interde- 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  241 

pendence  upon  his  fellow-man  that  the  solidarity  of  the 
human  race  will  ever  be  realized,  and  the  altruism  which 
shall  make  every  man's  happiness  include  that  of  all  man- 
kind become  an  established  fact. 

This  is  as  true  of  nations  as  of  individuals.  The  nation 
which  would  contribute  most  to  the  advancement  of  human 
progress  must  develop  its  own  civilization.  We  might  as 
well  expect  the  weak  to  carry  the  strong  as  barbarism  to  aid 
civilization.  That  nation  which  most  completely  develops 
its  own  industrial  and  social  possibilities  creates  the  most 
improved  methods  of  production.  In  this  way  it  is  not  only 
able  to  obtain  its  own  wealth  cheap,  but  ultimately  to  pro- 
duce many  commodities  at  less  cost  than  can  be  produced 
by  the  cheap  labor  of  less  civilized  countries.  Upon  the 
principle  that  whatever  undersells  succeeds,  the  less  civilized 
countries  are  compelled  to  adopt  the  superior  methods. 
Thus  the  benefits  of  inventions  which  result  from  a  higher 
civilization  are  automatically  transferred  to  a  lower,  and  the 
socializing  influences  of  improved  methods  of  production 
become  cosmopolitan. 

This  is  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  adoption  of  various 
kinds  of  American  machinery  abroad,  without  the  use  of 
which  many  European  products  would  have  been  undersold 
by  ours.  Nor  are  the  benefits  which  more  highly  civilized 
countries  confer  upon  the  lower  limited  to  what  is  forced 
upon  them  by  competition  in  commodities  which  they  both 
produce.  A  still  greater  benefit  arises  from  the  introduc- 
tion of  new  commodities,  which  more  diversified  tastes  and 
more  complex  social  life  of  the  more  highly  civilized  coun- 
try bring  into  existence.  As  a  demand  for  new  commodi- 
ties increases,  labor-saving  appliances  are  invented  to  reduce 
the  cost  of  their  production,  until  they  can  be  sold  in  foreign 
countries  at  merely  nominal  prices.  In  this  case  the  prod- 
ucts of  a  higher  civilization  are  not  competing  with  those 
of  a  lower,  but  new  products  are  being  introduced  into  less 
civilized  countries ;  this  stimulates  a  taste  for  articles  they 
have  not  hitherto  used,  thereby  introducing  new  elements 
into  their  social  life.  Just  as  fast  as  a  demand  for  such  new 
commodities  is  created,  the  social  life  is  diversified,  the 
standard  of  living  is  raised,  wages  are  increased,  and  a  mar- 
ket basis  for  new  industries  is  established.  This  is  what  the 
diversified  tastes  and  inventive  genius  of  America  have  been 
doing  in  Europe  and  South  America  to  an  increasing  ex- 
tent during  the  last  quarter  of  a'century. 


242  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

Another  advantage  of  scientific  protection  is  that  it  tends 
to  promote  the  economic  selection  of  industries,  thereby 
establishing  the  only  conditions  upon  which  free  trade  be- 
tween nations  can  ever  take  place  without  injury  to  the 
higher- wage  country. 

The  postulate,  so  frequently  emphasized  by  the  advocates 
of  laissez  faire,  that  nations,  like  individuals,  should  be  en- 
abled to  adopt  those  industries  for  which  they  are  best  fitted, 
is  unexceptionable.  But,  in  order  to  obtain  this  result,  it  is 
necessary  to  secure  opportunities  for  developing  the  eco- 
nomic possibilities  of  the  people.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  the  most  effective  force  in  society  is  human  invention, 
and  not  natural  resources,  as  is  commonly  assumed.  For 
reasons  already  explained,  labor-saving  inventions  can  be 
developed  only  under  the  influence  of  socializing  and  diver- 
sified industries.  These  conditions,  without  which  a  truly 
economic  selection  of  industries  is  impossible,  are  what  pro- 
tection furnishes. 

Although  it  may  be  possible  for  these  conditions  to  exist 
without  protection,  history  does  not  furnish  an  instance 
where  such  a  thing  has  occurred.  Take  our  own  country. 
If  protection  had  not  been  introduced  we  probably  should 
have  had  very  few  manufacturing  industries  for  a  century 
to  come,  if  at  all,  because  by  the  lower  prices  that  would 
have  prevailed  through  the  low  wages  and  highly  perfected 
machinery  in  England,  we  should  probably  have  remained 
chiefly  an  agricultural  people  with  a  sparse  population — in 
which  case  we  should  have  had  neither  the  socializing  in- 
fluence nor  individual  genius  that  large  manufacturing 
centers  have  furnished,  nor  the  extensive  immigration  which 
our  high  wages  have  attracted,  and  without  these  our  im- 
mense railroad  system  could  not  have  been  developed. 

The  way  in  which  protection  promotes  this  is  easy  to 
understand.  In  the  first  place,  it  raises  the  basis  of  inter- 
national competition  to  the  plane  of  the  higher  wage-level, 
and  thus  it  prevents  the  lower-paid  labor  from  one  country 
from  being  made  the  means  of  checking  the  growth  of 
manufacturing  industries  in  another.  This  secures  a  home 
market  for  domestic  products,  and  furnishes  an  economic 
basis  for  a  diversification  of  socializing  industries  in  the 
higher-wage  country.  The  greatest  incentive  is  thus  fur- 
nished for  developing  the  most  economic  methods  of  pro- 
duction. With  concentrated  capital,  the  use  of  highly  per- 
fected machinery,  and  the  development  of  specialized  indus- 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  243 

tries,  a  truly  economic  selection  of  industries  becomes  pos- 
sible. The  conditions  will  then  exist  for  determining  what 
things  a  nation  can  most  economically  produce,  by  reason  of 
its  peculiar  character,  natural  resources,  and  civilization. 

When  this  point  is  reached,  protection  will  be  economi- 
cally necessary  only  to  the  extent  of  preventing  the  substitu- 
tion of  simple  for  complex  industries.  It  will  then  be  to 
the  advantage  not  only  of  that  nation,  but  of  the  world,  that 
it  should  devote  its  productive  energies  to  those  industries 
for  which  it  has  developed  the  best  capacity,  and  to  relin- 
quish all  others  for  countries  for  which  they  are  better 
adapted.  Just  in  proportion  as  this  takes  place  protection  be- 
comes unnecessary— -provided,  however,  that  this  change  does 
not  involve  the  substitution  of  simple  for  complex  industries. 
For  example,  if  America  becomes  highly  proficient  in  the 
manufacture  of  jewelry  and  relatively  deficient  in  the  manu- 
facture of  silk,  capital  will  naturally  go  to  the  former  and 
away  from  the  latter  industry.  Foreign  silk  might  then  be 
admitted  free  of  duty  without  injury  to  the  American 
laborer.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  protection,  as  here  con- 
sidered, not  only  prevents  a  less  civilized  country  from 
checking  the  progress  of  a  higher,  but,  by  promoting  the 
substitution  of  economic  (intelligent)  for  natural  (blind) 
selection  of  industries,  it  tends  ultimately  to  make  a  mutu- 
ally advantageous  free  trade  possible. 

Thus  a  protective  policy  is  not  necessarily  narrow  and  ex- 
clusive, but,  when  philosophically  applied,  is  a  most  truly 
cosmopolitan  doctrine  of  industrial  relations,  because  it  tends 
first  to  develop  home  industry  and  civilization  without  in- 
juring others,  and,  second,  to  automatically  extend  these 
beneficial  results  to  all  mankind. 


244  Taxation  and  Revenue. 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE  DISCUSSION. 

MR.  LlNDLEY  VlNTON : 

I  have  been  waiting  to  hear  to  what  I  should  have  to  reply  on  the 
subject  of  taxation  and  revenue.  I  have  heard  nothing  of  taxation 
and  nothing  of  revenue,  but  merely  a  general  eulogy  of  the  protective 
system.  It  has  not  been  stated  whether  this  tax  is  just  or  not,  but 
simply  that  protection  has  built  up  the  country  and  that  without  pro- 
tection we  should  return  to  barbarism.  I  was  surprised  to  hear  that 
all  the  practical  or  "common-sense"  men  are  on  the  protectionist 
side.  I  had  supposed  that  it  was  otherwise.  I  myself  learned  the 
trade  of  machinist  and  I  am  now  a  president  of  a  manufacturing  con- 
cern, and  yet  I  am  as  strong  if  not  as  eloquent  a  free-trader  as  Mr. 
Shearman.  I  must  have  been  mistaken ;  I  am  the  prof  essor— the  mere 
theorist — and  the  professor  is  the  president  of  the  manufacturing 
company. 

The  free-trade  movement  in  England  had  for  its  champion  as  prac- 
tical a  man  of  affairs  as  John  Bright,  himself  a  manufacturer.  Benja- 
min Franklin,  a  practical  business  man,  the  ideal  embodiment  of 
"  common  sense,"  desired  that  England  and  America  should  be  united 
in  trade  if  not  in  government.  Present  instances  of  successful  manu- 
facturers and  business  men  who  are  free-traders  are  also  numerous. 
In  my  own  town  in  Indiana  three  out  of  five  heads  of  manufacturing 
companies  are  ardent  free-traders.  Workingmen  all  over  the  country 
are  changing  over  to  the  free-trade  side  because  they  find  that  pro- 
tection does  not  protect. 

I  wish  we  could  get  rid  of  the  two  words  "  protection  "  and  "  free 
trade."  People  say  "protection"  when  they  should  say  "a  system  of 
enactments  to  limit  the  natural  rights  of  man."  Free  trade  means 
equal  rights  to  all.  Protection  means  that  a  law  shall  be  enacted 
which  says  to  the  manufacturer :  "  You  shall  have  the  right  to  charge 
extra  prices  for  your  goods."  Protection  says  that  congressmen  are 
wise  enough  to  establish  our  business  relations  with  other  nations  by 
an  arbitrary  fiat.  Protection  says  that  when  I  go  into  business  I  may 
choose  my  own  partner;  but  I  must  also  receive  into  partnership  a 
third  party  who  comes  without  asking  and  who  comes  to  stay — the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  This,  I  hold,  is  outside  of  the  true 
province  of  government. 

The  professor  says  we  must  have  a  nation  to  protect  us  in  our  rights, 


{  U  N  i  V  E  R  8 

245 

and  that  if  free  trade  were  established  the  national  existence  would  be 
imperiled.  England  is  still  a  nation,  however,  and  England  has  had 
practical  free  trade  for  half  a  century.  The  nation  has  other  func- 
tions besides  those  of  the  policeman.  I  have  heard  various  theories 
propounded  in  defense  of  protection — infant  industries,  industries  that 
are  no  longer  infants,  and  all  that — but  here  we  have  something  new. 
"  Any  occupation  in  which  our  people  are  getting  no  better  wages 
than  those  of  other  nations  shall  not  be  protected ;  but  if  wages  else- 
where are  lower  than  in  our  own  country,  then  we  must  have  protec- 
tion." But  are  we  to  reckon  wages  by  the  daily  product  of  labor,  or 
by  the  per  diem  price?  It  would  give  us  as  much  trouble  to  keep  the 
tariff  straight  under  that  method  as  we  have  now. 

The  points  I  wish  to  make  are,  first,  that  the  industries  of  the  United 
States  were  not  built  up  by  protection,  and,  second,  that  the  industries 
of  the  United  States  do  not  need  protection  to  maintain  them.  The 
professor,  it  is  true,  made  the  statement  that  there  would  have  been 
industries  had  there  been  no  protection,  and  with  this  I  agree.  I 
agree  also  with  the  conclusions  from  his  jewelry  and  silk  illustration ; 
that  was  a  very  happy  free-trade  argument.  The  industries  of  the 
United  States  were  built  up  because  the  country  was  fitted  for  them, 
and  because  we  needed  them.  People  came  to  the  United  States 
and  found  fertile  fields;  they  left  the  crowded  countries  of  the  Old 
World  and  came  where  land  was  plenty  and  cheap,  and  labor,  con- 
sequently, high.  They  sought,  therefore,  to  find  ways  to  make  one 
man  do  two  men's  work.  In  the  old  country  it  wasn't  worth  while  to 
increase  a  man's  productiveness.  Driven  by  necessity,  they  made  im- 
provements in  their  implements.  The  farmer  went  to  the  blacksmith 
to  have  his  improved  plow  made;  the  blacksmith  became  busy;  labor 
was  high ;  he  couldn't  afford  to  do  his  work  with  the  old  tools.  So 
new  ones  were  invented,  and  new  industries  were  set  to  work.  The 
improvement  and  invention  of  machinery  has  gone  along  with  the 
diversification  of  our  industries.  At  last  came  Eli  Whitney,  the  in- 
ventor of  the  American  system  of  manufacturing.  Having  a  contract 
for  a  large  quantity  of  arms,  he  could  not  find  enough  gunsmiths — 
men  who  understood  all  the  various  operations  of  making  a  gun — but 
he  could  get  men  to  do  this  or  that,  and  by  setting  different  gangs  to 
work  on  different  parts,  and  inventing  a  machine  to  do  some  of  the 
work,  he  started  the  American  system.  The  industry  had  arisen,  not 
because  of  protection,  for  you  can't  protect  what  doesn't  exist,  but 
because  of  the  needs  and  genius  of  our  people. 

Take  the  iron  industry,  for  example.  England  had  "  protection " 
until  her  forests  were  wiped  from  the  earth.  Then  to  get  iron  for  her 
forges  she  opened  her  ports  and  encouraged  shipments  from  the  colo- 


246  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

nies.  We  manufactured  more  iron  than  England  before  we  became  a 
nation.  England  opened  her  doors  because  her  industry  had  been 
crushed — crushed  by  "protection."  Every  invention  that  tends  to 
make  iron  better  and  cheaper  was  made  under  free  trade,  and  the 
United  States  under  protection  doesn't  lift  a  hand  to  help  it.  The 
same  is  true  of  cotton.  This  industry  was  started  in  the  United 
States,  not  only  without  protection,  but  against  the  strongest  efforts  of 
England — by  prohibiting  the  exportation  of  machinery  to  this  country, 
etc. — to  prevent  it.  It  was  not  by  law,  but  by  the  working  out  of 
evolution,  that  this  industry  grew. 

Admitting  that  we  need  protection  at  all,  the  protection  that  we 
want  is  not  against  the  paupers,  but  against  the  high- wage  workers  of 
England.  The  professor's  contrary  theory  does  not  stand  the  test  of 
facts.  If  1  find  my  neighbor  paying  a  man  five  dollars  a  day  I  think 
there  is  something  going  on ;  he  has  superior  skill  or  knowledge  at 
his  command,  and  is  a  dangerous  rival.  The  cheapness  of  labor  is  not 
a  matter  of  the  number  of  dollars  per  day  the  laborer  receives,  but 
of  working  power  per  unit  of  production. 

I  should  like  to  have  the  professor  explain  the  second  step  in  his 
method  of  protection.  The  first  is  to  get  the  law  passed.  The  second 
is  to  see  that  the  manufacturer  gives  the  differences  in  prices  allowed 
by  the  increased  tariff  to  his  men.  I  do  not  do  it  and  others  do  not ; 
often  wages  are  lowered  instead  of  raised.  The  rule  of  business  is :  get 
it  yourself  if  you  can.  I  am  tired  of  hearing  men  say :  "  Let  us  tax 
you,  and  we'll  give  the  proceeds  to  the  other  men."  They  always  forget 
the  second  part.  The  professor's  quiet  assumption  that  the  foreign 
competitors  pay  the  difference  in  prices  caused  by  the  tariff  for  the 
privilege  of  introducing  their  wares  is  amusing,  but  will  deceive 
no  one. 

Variety  of  industries  is  good,  and  it  will  come  in  the  natural  evolu- 
tion of  our  industrial  system  whether  we  have  protection  or  not ;  but 
if  we  produce  it  by  artificial  stimulation  it  may  cost  too  much.  In  the 
matter  of  tin  plate,  for  example,  it  would  be  cheaper  to  offer  a  purse 
of  $5,000,000  for  producing  an  establishment  for  the  manufacture  of 
tin  plate  than  to  have  the  present  tariff  ;  but  that  would  disgust  the 
people.  As  soon  as  the  people  understand  that  protection  is  not  pro- 
tection, but  special  legislation  for  the  benefit  of  four  per  cent  of  the 
people  at  the  expense  of  the  rest,  there  will  be  a  change. 

Industries  have  not  gone  to  pieces  when  the  tax  has  been  taken  off ; 
witness  quinine,  sugar,  etc.  I  don't  know  of  an  industry  in  the  United 
States  connected  with  the  manufacture  of  iron  that  would  not  be 
benefited  by  the  removal  of  the  tax.  It  costs  less  to  make  iron  here 
than  it  does  to  make  it  in  England.  There  coke  costs  $5  a  ton  ;  in  the 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  247 

United  States  it  costs  $1.25.  And  with  convict  labor  at  25  cents  a  day 
(think  of  that,  in  a  protected  industry  in  America !)  we  have  the  advan- 
tage over  England  in  that  item  of  cost. 

They  say  we  must  have  protection  to  "start  new  industries.  That  is 
contrary  to  everything  we  know  in  the  history  of  this  country.  In  the 
South,  after  the  war,  there  was  no  capital,  no  business,  no  skilled  labor. 
Capital  from  the  North  went  down  there,  found  iron  and  coal,  built 
furnaces  and  cotton  mills,  in  spite  of  the  free  competition  of  New  Eng- 
land and  Pennsylvania.  Alabama  was  built  up  without  protection 
against  New  England.  Capital  will  always  take  the  risk  of  starting  new 
enterprises  if  it  ought  to  do  so.  No  new  industry  will  pay  at  once,  and 
those  who  start  it  do  not  expect  it  to.  If  a  newspaper  is  started  in 
New  York  $200,000  must  be  spent  before  anything  is  earned.  Yet  pa- 
pers are  started. 

Turning  to  the  real  topic  of  the  evening — Taxation  and  Revenue — I 
will  say  that  I  believe  in  direct  taxation.  I  want  to  know  what  I  pay 
and  to  whom,  and  1  want  what  I  pay  to  go  into  the  public  treasury  and 
not  into  the  pockets  of  individuals.  Taxation  should  be  in  proportion 
to  the  ability  of  the  individual  to  pay  and  to  the  services  which  the 
Government  renders  and  the  special  privileges  which  it  grants.  As  to 
revenue,  I  believe  it  can  be  raised  in  such  a  manner  that  no  duty  shall 
be  put  upon  any  [article  the  taxing  of  which  will  affect  the  manu- 
facturers in  this  country.  It  should  not  be  raised  in  any  way  that 
will  interfere  with  business,  or  put  money  in  the  pockets  of  the  manu- 
facturer. 

ME.  ROBERT  W.  TAYLEE  : 

If  I  have  any  criticism  to  offer  on  the  modes  of  discussion  adopted 
by  free-traders,  it  is  that  they  are  open  to  the  charge  of  intolerance.  I 
venture  to  assert  that  the  average  individual  with  strong  convictions 
in  favor  of  free  trade  is  more  ignorant  of  the  philosophical  grounds 
assumed  by  every  protectionist  in  the  establishment  of  his  position 
than  a  child  of  five  years  is  of  decimal  fractions.  We  have  had  a  vivid 
illustration  of  this  fact  to-night.  Prof.  Gunton's  philosophical  discus- 
sion of  the  doctrine  of  protection  on  the  basis  of  the  equalized  cost  of 
labor  production  was  to  the  last  speaker  a  novelty.  He  could  only 
meet  it  by  ridicule  and  by  the  assertion  that  the  speaker  had  evaded 
the  subject  of  the  evening.  Yet  I  believe  this  to  be  the  only  ground 
on  which  the  doctrine  of  protection  can  be  logically  sustained. 

The  protectionist  claims  that  all  industries  should  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  start  fairly,  on  grounds  of  equality.  He  holds  that  what- 
ever is  dug  from  the  ground,  grown  in  the  soil,  or  produced  in  the 
factory  at  the  same  expenditure  of  human  effort,  should  have  an 
17 


248  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

equal  chance  in  the  markets.  Protection  does  not  stand  on  any  ground 
of  advocating  a  hot-house  culture — it  admits  that  some  commodities 
can  be  better  produced  in  one  country  than  in  another.  Protectionists 
claim,  however,  that  there  is  no  opportunity  to  test  the  productive 
facilities  of  a  country  fairly  and  freely  unless  its  labor  is  protected 
from  ruinous  competition  with  that  of  other  nations,  whose  standard 
of  living  and  of  civilization  is  lower  than  its  own.  Protection  aims 
merely  to  secure  fair  play  and  a  true  economical  expenditure  of  effort. 

It  is  a  fundamental  law  of  protection  that  one  country — our  own,  for 
instance — can  afford  to  have  free  trade  with  another  only  when  the 
conditions  of  existence  of  the  people  in  the  other  are  as  high  as,  or 
higher  than,  our  own.  The  free-trader  equalizes  these  conditions  by 
lowering  the  standard  of  the  higher.  The  protectionist  equalizes  them 
by  a  tariff  on  the  product  of  the  lower. 

In  this  day  and  generation  we  must  remember  that  a  man  is  not 
only  a  creature  of  so  many  foot-pounds  or  horse-power,  but  a  man  in 
all  that  the  term  implies,  with  a  soul  and  a  heart,  with  hope  and 
ambition,  with  fears  and  affections. 

The  protectionist  protests  against  the  sinful  waste  of  human  effort 
in  transporting  products  across  the  seas  which  can  be  produced  equally 
well  or  better  on  our  own  soil.  The  measure  of  cost  is  not  dollars, 
but  the  amount  of  human  effort  expended  in  producing  an  article  and 
laying  it  at  the  door  of  the  consumer.  An  unnecessary  expense  of 
such  labor  is  waste,  and  waste  has  never  been  justified. 

ME.  HENRY  ROWLEY  : 

It  is  a  little  curious  to  me  that  in  philosophy  and  politics  and 
economics  those  questions  which  are  considered  fundamental  present 
the  greatest  number  of  controversial  points.  Everything  is  "  funda- 
mental." The  free-trader  says  :  "  No  tariff."  The  protectionist  says 
we  must  have  a  tariff  as  a  police ;  but  before  Prof.  G-unton's  sliding 
scale  all  these  things  are  temporary  and  shall  pass  away.  No  one 
agrees  with  any  one  else ;  therefore  intolerance  and  bigotry  are  out  of 
place.  Any  view  should  be  advanced  tentatively.  Dogmatism  is  not 
in  order. 

Mark  what  attacks  were  made  on  free  trade  as  a  metaphysical  view 
of  the  subject.  The  protectionist  view  is  held  up  as  scientific ;  but 
the  scientific  thing  called  "  protection "  was  boldly  assumed.  When 
speaking  of  protection  generally,  we  don't  mean  the  police,  nor  a  coat 
of  mail,  but  the  tariff,  and  protection  in  its  commercial  bearings. 

If  the  professor  goes  down  to  the  Bowery  and  meets  his  "  sixteen- 
round  "  man,  declines  his  invitation  to  defend  his  property  with  his 
fists,  and  hands  over  the  dirty  work  to  the  police,  morally  he  is  as  bad 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  249 

as  if  he  did  it  himself.  Now,  he  regards  the  tariff  as  a  policeman,  and 
every  other  nation  as  a  "  sixteen-round  "  man.  He  profits  by  the  tariff 
club,  and  lowers  himself  by  its  use !  He  says  that  the  kind  of  protec- 
tion which  he  wants  is  that  which  creates  an  understanding  between 
the  nations  as  to  the  levels  of  wages.  It  is  different  from  all  other 
kinds ;  it  is  to  be  commended  for  its  greater  excellence ;  but  it  contra- 
dicts his  theory  of  a  natipn.  If  a  nation  is  a  highwayman,  and  we 
seek  to  create  an  understanding  and  equality  with  it,  we  place  our- 
selves on  the  highwayman's  level. 

The  professor  was  correct  in  leaving  the  subject  of  taxation  severely 
alone.  The  logical  result  of  protection  is  to  stop  importations ;  thus 
you  stop  the  revenue,  and  must  find  it  from  other  sources.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  protectionist  to  devise  another  scheme  of  taxation  if  he 
would  carry  out  his  theory  to  its  logical  results. 

While  you  are  adjusting  the  wages  level,  how  are  you  to  deal  mean- 
time with  the  large  proportion  of  people  who  can  never  get  the  benefit 
of  protection — the  60,  70,  80,  or  even  90  per  cent,  who  are  altogether 
outside  the  possibility  of  getting  protection  ?  They  can  buy  Ameri- 
can corn  or  cheese  cheaper  in  London  than  in  New  York.  What  is  to 
come  to  America  in  return  while  we  are  adjusting  the  wage-level  ? 

The  protectionist  concedes  that  it  is  not  how  much  money  is  paid, 
but  how  much  human  effort  is  necessary  to  produce  a  certain  article 
that  determines  its  value.  In  this  country  we  have  produced  nothing 
extravagantly,  but  everything  naturally ;  the  soil  is  rich,  minerals  lie 
near  the  surface,  coal  for  smelting  iron  is  here ;  no  more  human  effort 
is  necessary  here  than  in  England  or  on  the  Continent.  Hence  we  are 
not  at  a  disadvantage  so  far  as  human  effort  goes. 

There  may  not  be  any  way  by  which  we  can  get  entirely  free  trade 
or  perfect  protection ;  but  let  us  hope  that  the  future  policy  of  the 
nation  will  be  based  upon  broad  lines  of  free  exchange. 

MR.  WILLIAM  POTTS  : 

I  wish  to  make  a  demurrer  to  a  historical  statement  of  the  lecturer 
as  to  the  relation  between  prices  and  wages.  The  lecturer  said  that 
wages  rise  with  prices.  Unless  I  have  sadly  misread  history,  wages 
follow  prices,  rising  slowly  and  inadequately. 

PROF.  GUNTON,  in  closing :  The  last  shall  be  first  in  my  reply  :  Let 
me  first  answer  the  criticism  of  Mr.  Potts  by  repeating  my  statement 
about  wages.  I  quoted  Mr.  Shearman,  who  said  that  "  wages  do  not 
rise  because  prices  rise."  I  say  wages  always  follow  prices ;  they  do 
not  rise  with  prices  nor  do  they  fall  with  prices.  The  laborer  doesn't 
make  his  fight  for  higher  wages  until  he  is  affected  by  the  rise  in 


250  Taxation  and  Revenue. 

prices.  But  the  history  of  the  last  four  hundred  years  shows  that 
wages  do  follow  prices.  And  if  Mr.  Potts  doubts  that  fact  he  need 
only  consult  Rogers,  Eden,  Tooke,  or  any  other  reliable  history  of 
prices. 

Mr.  Vinton  complained  that  I  did  not  talk  about  specific  means  of 
levying  taxes  and  raising  revenue.  I  was  invited  here  to  speak  on  the 
subject  of  protection  from  the  standpoint  of  evolution.  Hence  it  was 
protection  as  a  sociological  principle  that  I  discussed.  Had  time  per- 
mitted I  would  gladly  have  discussed  the  incidents  of  taxation.  On  the 
matter  of  levying  taxes  myjposition  is  just  about  opposite  to  that  of  the 
free-traders,  and  especially  Mr.  Vinton.  He  is  opposed  to  a  tariff  except 
for  revenue ;  I  am  entirely  opposed  to  a  tariff  except  for  protection. 
Import  duties  are  among  the  most  clumsy,  expensive,  and  offensive 
means  of  collecting  revenue,  and  can  never  be  economically  justified  ex- 
cept for  the  purpose  of  protection,  which  is  always  far  more  important 
than  revenue.  The  gentleman,  like  all  free-traders,  favors  direct  taxa- 
tion, and  thinks  taxes  should  be  levied  on  the  land.  He  evidently  needs 
to  begin  his  study  of  taxes  over  again.  A  land  tax,  instead  of  being 
direct,  is  the  most  indirect  tax  that  can  be  levied,  because  it  begins  at 
the  source  of  raw  material  and  goes  through  every  other  product  until 
it  reaches  the  consumer.  People  who  talk  about  concentrating  taxes 
on  land  because  they  want  direct  taxation  show  an  inability  to  dis- 
tinguish between  direct  and  indirect  taxation.  A  direct  tax  is  one 
which  is  so  levied  that  it  is  finally  paid  by  the  man  who  advances  it, 
which  is  one  of  the  worst  forms  of  taxation  conceivable.  It  gives  the 
greatest  inducement  to  all  the  forms  of  tax-dodging  and  is  essentially 
immoral  in  its  effects.  It  is  an  evidence  of  confused  thinking  to  mix 
the  questions  of  protection  and  revenue.  They  have  so  little  in  com- 
mon that  they  should  never  be  considered  together.  Taxation  for 
protection  has  nothing  to  do  with  revenue.  If  it  yields  revenue,  that 
is  the  incident.  It  should  be  levied  solely  for  the  protection  of  our 
civilization,  just  as  an  army  or  navy  should  be  maintained.  Taxation 
for  revenue  is  the  reverse.  That  should  be  levied  in  the  simplest  man- 
ner, with  the  view  of  the  minimum  cost  of  collection  and  the  least 
possible  inconvenience  to  the  citizen,  and  to  do  this  it  should  be  levied 
in  the  most  indirect  form  possible  instead  of  the  most  direct. 

By  indirect  taxation  we  secure  public  improvements,  clean  cities, 
free  kindergartens  for  the  children,  etc.,  and  for  these  public  benefits 
we  make  the  surplus-receiving  portion  of  the  community  pay.  With 
direct  taxation  every  one  thinks  he  pays  himself  and  sees  to  it  that  he 
pays  as  little  as  possible — so  public  improvements  languish. 

The  machines  and  inventions  referred  to  by  the  first  critic  are  all 
agricultural — plows,  spades,  etc.  Nothing  was  said  about  the  inven- 


Taxation  and  Revenue.  251 

tion  of  watch  machinery,  cotton  machinery,  and  the  other  machinery 
of  manufactures.  If  he  says  we  had  these  before  we  had  protection 
he  will  have  to  revise  history. 

In  general,  my  statement  that  the  theorists  favor  free  trade  and 
the  practical  men  favor  protection  is  true.  The  history  of  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  question  for  the  last  hundred  years  shows  that  the 
colleges  are  for  free  trade  and  the  statesmen  for  protection.  I  en- 
deavored to  present  protection  as  a  workable  principle,  recognized  in 
all  governmental  affairs,  not  confining  it  to  the  tariff. 

Mr.  Rowley  repeats  the  oft-exploded  error  that  "  the  logical  result  of 
protection  is  to  stop  importations."  Now,  from  the  principle  of  protec- 
tion I  have  presented  this  evening,  the  logical  result  is  nothing  of  the 
kind.  Importations  may  continue  indefinitely  under  such  protection. 
To  levy  a  tariff  equivalent  to  the  difference  in  wages  simply  raises  the 
plane  of  competition  up  to  the  level  of  the  labor  cost  in  this  country. 
Under  such  a  tariff  everybody  would  be  free  to  import  goods  on  that 
basis.  If  they  could  furnish  the  articles  cheaper  than  American  pro- 
ducers, after  eliminating  the  difference  in  wages,  they  would  be  free  to 
do  so.  In  other  words,  our  market  is  free  to  all  foreign  producers  who 
can  produce  as  cheaply  as  we  can  in  America  without  paying  lower 
wages.  In  a  word,  such  a  system  of  protection  would  keep  out  nobody 
except  those  whose  low  prices  resulted  from  a  lower  civilization.  To 
say  protection  is  identical  with  prohibition  is  to  misunderstand  the 
economics  of  both  protection  and  competition. 

As  a  general  business  principle,  whatever  undersells  succeeds. 
Whatever  succeeds  will  establish  its  methods  and  vindicate  them  be- 
fore the  world — low  wages  or  high,  cheap  living  or  dear,  servility  or 
manhood.  If  it  succeeds  by  reason  of  superior  methods,  it  will  estab- 
lish superior  methods,  and  the  world  will  have  to  follow  its  example. 
Such  an  example  America  is  setting  for  the  world,  by  reason  of  its 
adherence  to  the  protective  policy. 


THE  MONETARY  PROBLEM 


BY 

WILLIAM  POTTS 

AUTHOR  OF  EVOLUTION  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  :   THE  SOCIALISTIC  METHOD 
FORM  AND  COLOR  IN  NATURE,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Jevons's  Investigations  in  Currency  and  Finance,  and  Money  and 
the  Mechanism  of  Exchange ;  Walker's  Money,  and  Money  in  its  Re- 
lation to  Trade  and  Industry ;  Poor's  Money  and  its  Laws  ;  Sumner's 
History  of  American  Currency ;  Laughlin's  History  of  Bimetallism  in 
the  United  States ;  Price's  History  of  Currency  and  Banking ;  Soet- 
beer's  Precious  Metals ;  Bagehot's  Lombard  Street ;  Cleveland's  Bank- 
ing System  of  New  York ;  George's  Short  History  of  Paper  Money 
and  Banking  in  the  United  States ;  Mowry's  Studies  in  Civil  Govern- 
ment; Andrews's  An  Honest  Dollar;  Wallace's  Bad  Times;  Knox's 
Pamphlets  on  the  Silver  Question ;  Peffer's  The  Farmer's  Side ;  Alli- 
ance Tract  on  the  Seven  Financial  Conspirators ;  Gunton's  Principles 
of  Social  Economics. 


THE   MONETARY  PROBLEM. 

BY  WILLIAM  POTTS. 

IT  has  been  said  of  some  one — was  it  not  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone ? — that  he  could  make  numbers  sing.  I  wish  that  I 
also  could  make  numbers  sing  to-night ;  and  indeed,  if  I 
were  able  to  do  my  subject  justice,  I  should  make  numbers 
sing,  for,  believe  me,  there  are  few  other  subjects  around 
which  clings  so  much  that  is  interesting,  romantic,  and 
poetic.  But  the  restriction  upon  my  time  is  such  that  I 
can  do  little  more  than  give  you  a  statement  of  facts  and 
principles  and  let  you  make  your  own  deductions. 

When  one  small  boy  in  the  country  has  an  excess  of  ap- 
ples and  another  an  excess  of  marbles,  it  is  not  an  uncom- 
mon thing  to  have  this  disparity  rectified  by  an  exchange 
of  commodities,  and  similar  transactions  have  been  known  in 
the  experience  of  most  of  us.  The  boys — who  haven't  much 
time— call  this  a  "  swap,"  but  the  books  dignify  it  by  giving 
it  two  syllables  and  naming  it  barter.  Now,  I  suppose  that 
no  one  has  any  doubt  that  in  the  earliest  times  barter  was 
the  process  by  which  one  person  became  possessed  of  the 
goods  of  another,  when  he  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  un- 
able to  appropriate  them  without  giving  an  equivalent, 
which  was  a  still  simpler  method,  formerly  very  common 
and  not  yet  wholly  out  of  vogue. 

But  pure  barter  was  only  practicable  when  each  of  the 
parties  to  the  transaction  immediately  desired  that  which 
the  other  had.  This  condition  frequently  existed,  but  in  ^  a 
much  larger  number  of  cases  a  strong  desire  for  a  certain 
article  was  felt  by  one  who  had  nothing  to  give^  in  return 
for  which  the  other  party  to  the  transaction  had  immediate 
need,  on  its  own  account.  There  were,  however,  certain 
things  for  which  a  use  was  sure  to  arise  ultimately,  and 
hence  came  a  custom  of  employing  such  articles  as  inter- 
mediaries in  exchange ;  they  became  currency — that  is,  they 
would  run  hither  and  thither,  and  this  was  particularly  the 
case  when  they  happened  to  be  in  the  form  of  live  stock. 
A  vast  number  of  commodities  have  been  thus  used  at  vari- 
ous times  and  in  various  places.  Furs  or  skins  were  proba- 


256  The  Monetary  Problem. 

bly  among  the  earliest  so  used,  and  they  are  doubtless  still 
employed  in  some  parts  of  the  world.  During  the  earlier 
period  of  the  white  settlement  of  this  country  they  were  the 
most  common  currency,  under  the  name  of  peltry.  During 
the  pastoral  stage  oxen  were  the  usual  means  of  exchange, 
but  you  will  probably  agree  that  they  were  not  readily  sub- 
ject to  division,  either  decimally  or  otherwise,  without  in- 
jury to  their  value.  But  oxen  as  currency  have  this  special 
interest :  that,  being  counted  by  the  head  or  caput,  they  ap- 
pear to  have  given  the  title  to  accumulated  means,  as  "  cap- 
ital." Slaves  have  been  used  from  time  to  time  as  a  means 
of  facilitating  exchange  in  this  way,  and  it  is  hinted  that 
this  formerly  occurred  even  in  England. 

The  grains,  corn,  wheat,  barley,  etc.,  have  been  largely 
used  as  currency,  and  it  is  surprising  that  the  advocates  of 
the  sub-treasury  scheme  do  not  appear  to  have  noted  that 
"  in  Norway  corn  is  even  deposited  in  banks,  and  lent  and 
borrowed."  In  the  colonial  period  in  this  country  corn, 
tobacco,  and  dried  codfish  were  in  common  use.  These  are 
all  articles  for  which  there  is  a  great  and  constant  demand 
to  gratify  human  needs.  I  will  except  tobacco,  for  which  I 
can  not  imagine  any  legitimate  need  upon  the  part  of  any 
human  being.  But  I  know  that  all  do  not  agree  with  me. 

Other  articles  have  been  serviceable,  and  among  the  most 
common  some  whose  value  was  as  ornaments,  such  as  the 
cowrie  and  other  shells,  which,  in  the  form  of  wampum  or 
otherwise,  have  been  largely  used  by  barbarous  peoples,  and 
by  those  dealing  with  them.  It  is  said  that  the  Yankee 
traders  with  the  Indians  showed  an  ingenuity  worthy  of  the 
heathen  Chinee  in  the  preparation  of  wampum,  and  through 
their  industry  provided  so  large  a  supply  of  currency  that  it 
should  have  satisfied  the  Alliance  of  that  day,  which  I  take 
to  have  been  "  the  Six  Nations." 

These  various  commodities  have  often  been  in  turn  the 
almost  exclusive  currency  or  money  of  the  people  who  used 
them,  but  frequently  no  such  common  money  was  recog- 
nized. 

M.  Wolowski,  a  French  economist,  prints  a  letter  from  a 
certain  Mademoiselle  Zelie,  who  in  the  course  of  a  tour  round 
the  world  gave  a  concert  in  the  Society  Islands.  When  she 
came  to  reckon  up  her  share  of  the  proceeds  this  is  what  she 
found  :  "  Three  pigs,  twenty-three  turkeys,  forty-four  chick- 
ens, five  thousand  cocoa-nuts,  besides  considerable  quanti- 
ties of  bananas,  lemons,  and  oranges."  Whether  the  chick- 


The  Monetary  Problem.  257 

ens  were  old  and  tough,  or  whether  they  were  legal-tender, 
is  not  stated. 

At  a  very  early  period  the  metals  came  into  use,  mainly, 
doubtless,  for  two  reasons — their  comparative  durability,  and 
their  intrinsic  value.  The  same  characteristics  are  found  in 
jewels  and  precious  stones,  the  ordinary  use  of  which  was  of 
course  almost  wholly  in  ornament.  These,  however,  had  a 
special  value  in  turbulent  times,  because,  having  become 
greatly  prized  at  an  early  period,  they  would  represent  much 
other  property  in  exchange,  and,  being  very  compact,  they 
could  be  easily  concealed  and  preserved  from  depredation. 
But  these  naturally  became  quickly  the  property  of  the 
chiefs  of  various  orders,  and  the  strong  and  shrewd,  while 
the  metals,  being  in  common  use  by  all,  and  of  less  ex- 
changeable value  relatively,  although  much  more  useful, 
soon  came  to  move  freely  among  the  people  at  large ;  and 
this  is  true  of  all  the  familiar  metals,  though  iron  and 
bronze,  being  the  earliest  in  common  use,  came  earliest  into 
use  as  currency. 

At  first  they  were  exchanged  in  shapeless  masses  by 
weight  or  by  bulk,  but  this  custom  gave  place  to  a  more 
regular  form  and  amount,  one  of  the  earliest  appearing  to 
have  been  that  of  nails  or  spikes,  each  of  which  was  called 
by  the  Greeks  an  obolus,  a  handful  of  six  forming  a 
drachma. 

As  the  metals  became  more  common,  and  property  ac- 
cumulated so  that  exchanges  became  more  numerous  and 
more  extensive,  the  cheaper  metals  tended  to  give  place  to 
the  scarcer,  and  those  which  were  subject  to  rapid  oxidation 
and  change  to  those  less  easily  affected  by  atmospheric  con- 
ditions or  other  kinds  of  exposure.  While  all  the  metals 
which  are  commonly  known  appear  to  have  been  tried  in 
turn  in  various  places,  and  a  number  are  still  used  either 
separately  or  in  combination,  everywhere  the  choice  for  the 
principal  currency  has  finally  fallen  upon  gold  and  silver, 
for  perfectly  satisfactory  and  conclusive  reasons. 

Though  widely  disseminated  in  very  considerable  quanti- 
ties, and  to  be  found  in  almost  every  locality — even  in  the 
soil  of  our  own  city — they  have  ordinarily  been  obtained  only 
slowly  and  with  much  labor,  so  that  the  production  is  re- 
stricted ;  they  are  bright  and  pure  in  color,  and  not  easily 
affected  by  chemical  action;  they  are  very  malleable,  are 
not  brittle,  and  are  well  adapted  for  use  in  making  a  vast 
variety  of  articles,  and  have  always  been  greatly  prized  by 


258  The  Monetary  Problem. 

all  peoples  for  this  purpose.  Thus  they  have  a  constant 
value — constant  in  the  sense  of  persistent,  though  not  equal 
or  similar  at  one  time  with  another.  Their  value,  in  fact, 
appears  to  have  varied  greatly  in  several  ways — differing  in 
each  case  between  one  period  and  another,  differing  in  their 
relative  value  to  each  other  in  the  same  place  at  different 
times,  and  differing  in  their  relative  value  to  each  other  in 
different  places  at  the  same  time.  Thus  it  appears  that  in 
early  times  silver  was  more  valuable  than  gold  in  Arabia. 
"  In  the  reign  of  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes,  gold  was  thirteen 
times  as  valuable  as  silver ;  in  the  time  of  Plato,  twelve ;  and 
in  that  of  the  comic  poet  Menander  it  was  only  ten.  In 
the  epoch  of  Julius  Cassar  the  ratio  of  gold  to  silver  fell  to 
9  for  1."  In  England  in  1262  it  was  between  9  and  10  for 
1,  while  thirty  years  later  it  was  12^-  for  1.  In  1485  it  was 
13f  for  1. 

With  the  discovery  of  America  in  1492,  and  especially 
with  the  conquest  of  Mexico  in  1521,  the  production  of  the 
precious  metals  rapidly  increased,  and  their  relative  values 
changed.  In  Spain  at  this  period  the  recognized  ratio  was 
a  little  more  than  10  to  1 ;  in  1537  it  was  about  10£  to  1 ; 
during  the  reign  of  Philip  II  it  was  a  little  over  12  to  1 ; 
during  the  reign  of  Philip  III,  13^  to  1 ;  during  the  reign 
of  Charles  II,  a  little  over  15  to  1 ;  and  in  1779  it  was 
fixed  at  16  to  1.  (I  follow  Prof.  Leone  Levi,  as  quoted 
by  Prof.  Walker.)  Various  fluctuations  occurred  at  a  later 
date  in  the  recognized  ratio,  at  the  present  time  that  of 
the  "  Latin  Union,"  so  called  (comprising  France,  Bel- 
gium, Italy,  and  Switzerland,  to  which  have  been  added 
Greece,  Koumania,  Servia,  and  Spain),  being  15-J  to  1 ;  that 
of  the  United  States  about  15*99  to  1 ;  while  the  actual  mar- 
ket value  of  the  metals  is  at  this  time  as  22-22  to  1.  Within 
our  own  time  the  relative  values  in  Japan  were  4  to  1,  but 
the  avidity  with  which  American  and  British  traders  sought 
to  make  exchanges  at  this  rate  very  quickly  taught  the 
Japanese  the  necessity  of  a  modification  of  their  currency. 

First  passing  from  hand  to  hand  in  crude  masses,  then  in 
the  form  of  nails  or  spikes  or  rings  or  chains,  at  a  very  early 
period  it  became  customary  to  divide  the  metals  into  definite 
portions,  and  to  impress  upon  these  some  distinguishing  de- 
vice. This  process  of  coinage  has  usually,  although  not  in- 
variably, been  held  to  be  a  prerogative  of  the  ruler  or  the 
state,  and  at  times  the  effigies  upon  coins  have  been  of  a 
high  artistic  value.  This  may  be  said  of  certain  coins  even 


T/ie  Monetary  Problem.  259 

now ;  of  our  own,  however,  perhaps  it  may  be  just  as  well 
not  to  speak. 

Of  the  amount  of  the  precious  metals  in  the  possession  of 
the  nations,  or  in  use  in  the  coinage  at  any  period  in  the 
remote  past,  it  is  impossible  to  form  any  accurate  or  even 
closely  approximate  estimate  upon  which  reliance  can  be 
placed.  The  amount  has  been  continually  changing — by 
a  constantly  fluctuating  rate  of  production  upon  the  one 
hand,  and  by  consumption  in  the  arts  and  the  abrasion  of 
coin  in  use  upon  the  other.  All  these  factors  are  impor- 
tant— the  last,  which  at  first  thought  might  seem  slight, 
being,  on  the  contrary,  of  great  moment,  varying  within  wide 
limits  according  to  the  purity  of  the  metals  or  the  alloys 
employed.  Thus,  during  the  reign  of  Augustus,  there  was 
a  vast  store  of  gold  and  silver  held  as  treasure  in  the  Roman 
Empire.  Within  the  following  century  great  amounts  of 
this  had  been  thrown  into  active  circulation,  and,  because  of 
the  inferior  character  of  the  alloys  used,  the  loss  by  depre- 
ciation in  weight  became  very  large.  This  loss  appears  to 
have  continued  for  a  long  period — many  hundred  years — 
during  which  period  it  was  made  more  evident  in  Europe 
by  a  constant  drain  of  silver  to  the  East,  where  a  relative 
preference  for  that  metal  has  always  existed. 

Mr.  Jacob,  the  leading  authority  upon  this  subject,  esti- 
mates the  stock  of  money  in  the  empire  on  the  accession  of 
Augustus  at  £358,000,000  sterling,  equal  to  $1,790,000,000. 
He  supposes  that  for  about  eight  hundred  years  the  net  loss 
to  the  coinage  through  abrasion,  etc.,  was  at  the  rate  of 
about  ten  per  cent  every  thirty-six  years,  so  that  the  stock 
had  sunk  in  806  to  less  than  £34,000,000  sterling,  or  $170,- 
000,000,  less  than  one  tenth  the  amount  in  circulation  at 
the  time  of  the  accession  of  Augustus.  For  the  next  seven 
hundred  years  Mr.  Jacob  estimates  that  the  coinage  was 
kept  at  about  the  same  amount  by  the  increased  yield  of 
the  mines. 

But  then  came  the  flood.  At  first  in  pattering  drops,  it 
did  not  seem  likely  to  be  much  of  a  shower ;  but  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  followed  by  the  conquest  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  with  the  opening  of  the  mines  of  Potosi  and  the  dis- 
covery by  Medina  of  the  process  of  amalgamation,  brought 
on  the  torrent.  The  estimated  production  of  the  New 
World  up  to  1545  was  over  £17,000,000,  or  half  as  much  as 
the  entire  estimated  stock  on  hand  at  the  time  of  Colum- 
bus's  first  voyage.  Mr.  Jacob  'estimates  that  the  stock  of 


260  The  Monetary  Problem. 

money  current  in  Europe  had  increased  during  the  century 
up  to  the  year  1600  from  £34,000,000  to  £130,000,000, 
that  the  next  hundred  years  increased  it  to  £297,000,000, 
and  the  following  one  hundred  and  ten  years,  onward  to 
1810,  had  brought  it  up  to  £380,000,000.  And  this  after 
making  ample  allowance  for  abrasion,  and  an  allowance  of 
£440,000,000  as  consumed  in  the  arts,  etc.,  and  £400,000,000 
as  passed  onward  to  Asia. 

Properly,  to  complete  this  portion  of  our  history,  I  should 
say  that  after  1810,  for  a  considerable  number  of  years,  the 
demand  of  the  arts  and  the  drain  to  the  East,  taken  together, 
were  so  great  as  seriously  to  diminish  the  amount  of  the 
precious  metals  in  circulation,  and  to  excite  an  apprehen- 
sion of  a  currency  famine,  a  period  of  twenty  years  appar- 
ently showing  an  actual  loss  of  over  £60,000,000  sterling. 
But  this  period  was  followed  by  a  greatly  increased  pro- 
duction of  gold  in  Kussia  and  Siberia,  and  this  in  turn  by 
the  enormous  discoveries  in  California,  in  Australia,  and  in 
southern  Africa,  which  have  wholly  changed  the  situation. 
If  we  had  a  flood  following  the  discovery  of  America,  what 
shall  we  say  of  the  deluge  which  has  poured  over  the  world 
since  1848  ?  The  value  of  the  gold  and  silver  produced  in 
the  twenty  years  following  that  date  has  been  calculated  at 
over  £1,000,000,000  sterling,  or  $5,000,000,000,  about  two 
thirds  of  which  was  gold  and  one  third  silver.  Since  1868 
the  production  has  been  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  great,  the 
value  of  the  silver  product  being  about  equal  to  that  of  the 
gold.  But,  whereas,  in  1849,  if  the  figures  of  Prof.  Kay- 
mond  and  the  Director  of  the  Mint  are  to  be  trusted,  the 
total  value  of  the  gold  mined  in  the  United  States  was  eight 
hundred  times  the  total  value  of  the  silver  so  mined,  in 
1890  the  ratio  of  production  had  so  far  changed  that  the 
value  of  the  silver  mined  was  78  per  cent  greater  than  that 
of  the  gold.  That  is,  whereas,  in  1849  the  total  production 
in  the  United  States  was  of  gold  about  59^-  tons  and  of  sil- 
ver about  1-J-  tons,  in  1890  the  total  production  of  gold  was 
about  44^  tons  and  the  production  of  silver  over  1,500  tons. 
Try  to  realize  this  if  you  can,  and  think  of  the  Herculean, 
the  impossible  effort  called  for  in  the  attempt  to  maintain 
the  old  ratio  of  values  between  these  metals. 

The  use  of  the  metals  as  money  in  exchange — at  first,  as 
we  have  seen,  spontaneous  and  irregular — as  society  has  ad- 
vanced has  tended  to  become  steadily  more  precise  and  defi- 
nite, and  to  come  under  the  absolute  control  of  the  domi- 


The  Monetary  Problem.  261 

nant  authority  in  each  state.  Premising  that  all  other 
metals  than  gold  and  silver  are  now  used  only  incidentally 
and  in  the  minor  currency,  we  may  divide  the  nations  into 
three  classes  :  those  which  are  upon  a  silver  basis,  or  whose 
recognized  standard  and  legal  tender  is  silver ;  those  which 
are  upon  a  gold  basis ;  and  those  which  have  a  mixed  coin- 
age, or  so-called  double  standard. 

A  silver  standard  practically  prevails  throughout  Asia  and 
the  East  India  Islands,  parts  of  Africa,  the  West  Indies, 
Central  America  and  Mexico,  the  stationary,  semi-civilized, 
or  barbarous  nations.  (The  actual  unit  of  value  in  China, 
however,  is,  I  believe,  the  cash,  a  small  coin  composed  of 
copper,  iron,  and  tin.)  The  gold  standard  exists  in  Great 
Britain  and  many  of  her  dependencies,  such  as  Australia  and 
New  Zealand,  in  the  German  Empire,  Denmark,  Norway, 
Sweden,  Portugal,  Turkey,  Egypt,  Chili  and  Brazil,  and 
some  other  South  American  countries.  The  double  or  mul- 
tiple standard,  so  called,  is  nominally  maintained  by  France, 
Italy,  Belgium  and  Switzerland,  Spain,  Greece  and  Kou- 
mania,  connected  in  the  Latin  Union,  and  by  Peru,  Ecuador, 
New  Granada,  and  the  United  States.  In  Europe,  however, 
the  coinage  of  silver  is  so  closely  restricted  in  amount  (hav- 
ing in  fact  been  nearly  or  quite  abandoned  for  many  years) 
as  to  establish  what  is  called  a  "  limping  standard,"  by  pro- 
ducing a  condition  somewhat  similar  to  that  which  exists 
under  the  single  gold  standard,  and  which  existed  in  this 
country  a  few  years  ago,  silver  and  other  metals  being  used 
as  a  subsidiary  coinage,  only  in  limited  amounts,  made  pur- 
posely of  metal  worth  less  than  their  face  value,  and  a  legal 
tender  only  for  very  small  sums.  This  is  what  is  called  a 
"token"  currency,  and  is  readily  maintained  as  a  conven- 
ience in  exchange  by  closely  limiting  its  extent. 

In  this  distribution  of  the  diiferent  standards  I  have  fol- 
lowed the  authorities  accessible  to  me ;  it  is  possible  that  in 
one  or  two  instances  changes  may  recently  have  taken  place. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  United  States  coinage,  in  1792, 

S)ld  and  silver  were  both  adopted,  with  a  ratio  of  15  to  1. 
old,  being  underrated,  according  to  the  values  at  that  date, 
quickly  disappeared  from  the  circulation  and  commanded  a 
premium,  and  in  1836  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  said 
that  two  years  before,  of  all  the  gold  which  had  been  coined 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Mint,  not  over  $1,000,000  re- 
mained in  the  country,  and  only  a  very  diminutive  portion 
of  that  was  in  active  circulation.  In  1834  the  ratio  was 


262  The  Monetary  Problem. 

changed  to  16  to  1,  and  in  1837  it  was  again  changed  to 
about  15-99  to  1.  Silver,  being  undervalued,  went  out  of 
circulation,  giving  place  to  gold,  so  that,  though  the  Mint 
continued  to  coin  silver,  it  immediately  disappeared,  leaving 
the  old  worn  pieces  and  the  weather-beaten  coins  of  Spain 
and  Mexico,  upon  which  it  was  sometimes  impossible,  as  I 
well  remember,  to  distinguish  any  trace  of  the  original  marks 
of  the  die.  In  1853  the  effort  to  make  the  coins  circulate 
together  was  practically  abandoned ;  the  value  of  the  smaller 
silver  coins  was  reduced  considerably  below  their  represent- 
ative value,  thus  making  them  a  subsidiary  coinage,  and 
they  were  made  a  legal  tender  only  in  sums  of  five  dol- 
lars or  less.  In  1873  the  gold  dollar  was  made  the  unit  of 
value,  and  all  silver  coins  were  made  subsidiary,  thus  abol- 
ishing the  double  standard.  The  ridiculous  charge  has  been 
often  made  that  this  change  was  effected  maliciously  by  in- 
terested parties,  surreptitiously,  and  without  any  under- 
standing as  to  its  meaning,  the  fact,  however,  being  that 
the  bill  was  drawn  three  or  four  years  before  it  was  passed, 
that  it  was  printed  thirteen  times  by  Congress,  and  that  its 
provisions  were  finally  considered  and  discussed  for  several 
days,  their  bearing  being  distinctly  stated ;  and,  moreover, 
neither  gold  nor  silver  was  in  circulation  or  had  been  for 
eleven  years  previous,  and  neither  came  into  circulation  for 
more  than  five  years  after  the  passage  of  the  bill. 

It  is  now  proper  that  I  should  call  your  attention  to  one 
or  two  definitions  and  distinctions  which  are  important.  In 
economical  discussion,  as  in  discussions  upon  other  topics, 
many  if  not  most  of  the  differences  which  arise  come  from 
lack  of  precision  in  the  use  of  terms.  We  can  not  undertake 
to  settle  any  disputed  points  in  nomenclature  here,  but  we 
can  at  least  avoid  confusion  by  stating  clearly  our  own 
meaning. 

In  the  first  place,  what  is  money  ?  Various  definitions 
have  been  given  to  this  apparently  simple  term.  Let  us  adopt 
that  of  General  Francis  A.  Walker,  than  which  I  think  that 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  better  (I  quote  at  second 
hand  from  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica) :  "  That  which 
passes  freely  from  hand  to  hand  throughout  the  community 
in  final  discharge  of  debts  and  full  payment  for  commodi- 
ties, being  accepted  equally  without  reference  to  the  char- 
acter or  credit  of  the  person  who  offers  it,  and  without  the 
intention  of  the  person  who  receives  it  to  consume  it  or 
enjoy  it  or  apply  it  to  any  other  use  than  in  turn  to  tender 


The  Monetary  Problem.  263 

it  to  others  in  discharge  of  debts  or  payment  for  commodi- 
ties." 

Now,  why  have  the  various  articles  which  at  sundry  times 
and  places  have  been  used  as  money  been  called  into  exist- 
ence ?  What  is  the  special  need  which  they  satisfy  ?  As 
money,  we  can  not  eat  them  or  drink  them,  or  cover  our- 
selves with  them,  or  use  them  as  ornament.  Perhaps  I  am  a 
little  too  fast  in  the  latter  particular ;  coins  have  not  been 
an  uncommon  decoration  in  Africa  and  Polynesia,  and,  if  I 
mistake  not,  I  have  within  a  moderate  number  of  years  seen 
them  so  used  by  maidens  of  Yankee  birth.  But  this  can 
hardly  be  considered  an  important  use.  Money  is  a  tool 
with  which  certain  functions  are  performed,  just  as  a 
spade  is  a  tool  for  the  performance  of  certain  other  func- 
tions. These  functions  are  various,  and  they  are  not  always 
necessarily  united  in  the  one  instrument. 

In  the  first  place,  money  is  a  medium  of  exchange  to  fa- 
cilitate barter.  It  is  not  the  money  in  which  we  are  inter- 
ested ;  it  is  the  articles  or  services  which  we  give  for  it  in 
order  that  we  may  readily  and  at  our  pleasure  obtain  other 
articles  or  services  upon  its  surrender.  While  we  have  it,  it 
is  of  no  value  to  us — or  is  of  merely  a  nominal  value,  which 
becomes  real  as  we  get  rid  of  it.  In  order  to  perform  this 
function  to  the  full,  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  it  should 
be  held  at  the  same  value  by  him  who  gives  and  by  him  who 
takes  it — I  mean  the  same  value  in  exchange.  For  mark 
you,  money  under  the  definition  which  we  have  adopted 
has  not  necessarily  any  value  excepting  in  exchange.  But 
how  does  it  acquire  this  value  in  exchange  ?  In  one  of  three 
ways :  it  must  have  an  intrinsic  value  for  which  it  will  pass 
from  hand  to  hand ;  or,  second,  it  must  be  by  its  conditions 
exchangeable  into  some  particular  thing  which  has  intrinsic 
value  ;  or,  third,  it  must  be  of  limited  amount  and  receiv- 
able by  the  Government  in  settlement  of  certain  extensive 
claims,  such  as  taxes ;  this  is  really  a  form  of  the  second 
condition. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question,  What  is  a  standard  of 
value  ?  A  standard  or  measure  of  value  is  that  which  is 
used  to  determine  the  exchangeable  values  of  other  com- 
modities or  services.  This  can  at  any  one  time  be  only  one 
article,  in  the  nature  of  things.  A  double  standard  is  a 
misnomer.  The  buyer  and  the  seller  of  a  piece  of  cloth 
must  either  use  the  same  yardstick,  or  one  yardstick  must 
be  calculated  in  terms  of  the  other.  But  this  shows  us  that 
18 


264  The  Monetary  Problem. 

a  certain  article  which  is  truly  money  in  the  sense  of  our 
definition  is  not  necessarily  the  standard  of  value,  but  merely 
has,  from  some  cause,  a  definite  relation  to  that  standard, 
which  must  itself  have  an  intrinsic  value,  else  there  is  no 
means  of  determining  its  relation  to  the  value  of  other 
things.  This  standard  is  of  special  importance  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  third  function  of  which  I  have  to  speak — that  is, 
as  a  means  of  regulating  deferred  payments,  or  the  settle- 
ment of  accounts  which  are  in  the  nature  of  debts,  which, 
instead  of  being  instances  of  immediate  barter,  are  cases  of 
barter  in  the  consummation  of  which  months,  years,  or  even 
generations  may  intervene.  In  performing  this  function, 
as  we  shall  shortly  see,  all  commodities  which  have  been  in 
use  hitherto  as  money  have  been  most  defective. 

I  have  shown  that  gold  or  silver,  or  gold  and  silver,  have 
been  settled  upon  by  civilized  nations  as  the  standard  or 
standards  of  value,  with  a  strong  and  increasing  tendency, 
as  I  believe  history  conclusively  shows,  to  the  final  choice 
of  gold  alone.  Now,  what  is  it  that  determines  the  values 
of  these  metals  ?  What  is  it  that  determines  the  value  of 
any  commodity  or  service  ?  This  is  a  complex  question  and 
could  only  be  answered  approximately  by  introducing  many 
suggestions  and  stating  many  relations.  Why  a  pound  of 
gold  should  be  considered  worth  so  many  dollars,  and  not 
one  tenth  as  many  or  ten  times  as  many,  is  simply  to  call 
.for  the  answer  that  it  has  been  decreed  that  a  pound  of 
gold  should  be  divisible  into  so  many  parts,  to  each  of  which 
the  name  dollar  is  given.  But  why  a  pound  of  gold  will 
buy  just  so  much  beef,  or  so  much  mechanical  labor,  or  so 
many  sermons,  is  quite  another  question.  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  the  actual  present  exchangeable  value  of  all  sorts 
of  commodities  is  the  outgrowth  of  human  experience 
through  human  labor,  human  needs,  and  human  whims, 
and  the  establishment  of  human  customs.  The  socialist 
will  tell  you  that  the  basis  of  all  value  is  labor,  and  labor 
only,  and  that  exchangeable  value  results  from  this  fact, 
and  that  in  the  coming  socialistic  state  the  prices  of  all 
commodities  will  be  easily  fixed  by  the  chosen  authorities 
upon  this  principle.  Statements  like  this,  so  freely  made 
and  so  easily  swallowed,  to  use  the  convenient,  expressive, 
and  picturesque  phrase  of  the  street,  "  make  me  tired." 
Nothing  is  easier  to  prove  than  that  existing  prices  are  not 
solely  the  result  of  labor,  and  nothing  is  easier  than  to  show 
that  the  determination  of  the  labor  value  of  all  commodities 


The  Monetary  Problem.  265 

is  impossible  to  the  wisest  of  human  beings  or  any  collec- 
tion of  the  wisest  of  human  beings — to  say  nothing  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen  of  the  city  of  Weissnichtwo.  Suppose 
a  commodity  is  raised  from  the  mines  under  certain  con- 
ditions of  labor  in  one  quarter  of  the  globe  ;  it  is  then  trans- 
ported on  human  backs  over  rocky  mountains,  or  upon 
railroads,  or  upon  broad  rivers,  or  upon  the  ocean,  or  upon 
all  in  turn ;  it  is  passed  from  hand  to  hand ;  it  is  lifted  and 
lowered  and  forged  and  hammered ;  it  is  manufactured  sim- 
ply by  human  strength  and  skill,  or  it  is  worked  over  in  a 
great  mill  with  numberless  labor-saving  appliances;  it  is 
again  transported  and  exchanged,  and  made  over  into  new 
combinations  ;  it  goes  from  hand  to  hand  and  from  land  to 
land,  and  finally  enters  into  the  construction  of  some  article 
which  is  offered  for  sale  in  the  communal  storehouse  of  the 
great  city  of  Weissnichtwo,  at  its  labor  value  to  be  calcu- 
lated by  our  wise  fathers  of  the  people  chosen  by  popular 
vote.  I  think  that  we  may  turn  this  suggestion  down. 

No  ;  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  by  hard  labor  and  by  hard 
knocks,  by  the  competition  of  production  and  the  compe- 
tition of  desire,  by  superstitious  fancies  rubbing  upon  philo- 
sophical speculations  and  ground  against  practical  needs 
modified  by  acquired  habits,  commodities  have  gained  a 
certain  more  or  less  stable  relation  of  value  to  each  other, 
and  of  price  as  measured  by  the  standard  of  exchange.  It 
is  with  price  that  we  now  have  to  do  ;  that  is,  the  exchange- 
able ratio  of  articles  as  expressed  in  money. 

At  this  time  the  price  of  articles  in  most  civilized  nations 
is  their  exchangeable  value  as  expressed  in  terms  of  gold, 
and  the  exchangeable  value  of  gold  (as  of  silver  also)  is 
based  upon  the  desire  of  mankind  for  it,  for  its  use  in  the 
arts  and  its  use  in  coinage.  This  value,  as  we  have  seen,  has 
differed  greatly  at  various  periods  (as  has  the  value  of  silver) 
from  various  causes,  but  largely  on  account  of  the  greater  or 
less  amount  of  it  available.  Now,  for  the  performance  of 
two  of  the  three  functions  which  I  have  defined,  gold  and  sil- 
ver are  very  satisfactory :  first  as  media  of  exchange,  and 
second  in  either  case,  though  not  in  both  at  once,  as  a  stand- 
ard or  measure  of  value  for  immediate  purposes.  They  are 
in  each  case  only  moderately  satisfactory  or  are  quite  unsat- 
isfactory as  a  standard  of  value  for  deferred  payments,  or 
what  I  have  described  as  suspended  barter,  according  to  the 
length  of  the  period  covered,  because  of  the  fluctuations  in 
their  own  value,  and  for  this  reason  :  that  if  their  value  rises, 


266  The  Monetary  Problem. 

a  return  must  be  made  at  a  greater  cost  than  the  original 
investment,  while  if  their  value  falls,  the  return  is  inadequate. 
Very  serious  injustice  has  been  inflicted  in  times  past  by 
changes  of  this  character,  although  I  believe  these  changes 
have  hitherto  been  incidental  and  unintentional,  except  in 
the  cases  of  criminal  debasements  of  the  coinage  by  rulers 
when  short  of  funds.  It  has  remained  for  the  bucolic  re- 
formers of  our  own  country  and  our  own  time  deliberately 
to  propose  a  wholesale  confiscation  of  a  large  percentage  of 
the  property  of  others  in  this  way,  as  I  shall  indicate  pres- 
ently. 

Instead  of  seeking  methods  of  increasing  the  injustice 
which  is  now  possible  even  under  ordinary  careful  manage- 
ment, economists  have  sought  to  devise  means  by  which  it 
may  be  reduced.  Perhaps  the  most  hopeful  scheme  is  that 
suggested  by  Prof.  Jevons.  I  think  he  conclusively  shows 
that,  were  it  possible  for  the  nations  to  agree  upon  bimetal- 
lism at  a  certain  fixed  ratio  and  to  adhere  to  it,  the  fluctua- 
tion in  the  standard  would  be  less  than  at  present,  because 
the  metals  vary  in  value  irregularly,  and  the  actual  standard 
being  by  Gresham's  law  always  the  less  valuable  metal,  the 
variations  would  be  less  wide,  with  a  steady  tendency,  how- 
ever, toward  a  depreciation  of  the  currency  and  an  increase 
in  prices.  (Gresham's  law,  as  it  is  called,  is  simply  a  deduc- 
tion from  experience  that  when  two  metals  are  associated  in 
the  currency,  and  one  of  them  is  produced  in  excess  or  a 
greater  demand  arises  for  one  than  the  other,  unless  some 
unusual  or  abnormal  influence  should  interfere,  the  less  val- 
uable metal  will  become  the  actual  currency,  the  more  val- 
uable being  hoarded  or  otherwise  withdrawn  from  circula- 
tion.) But  to  my  mind  it  is  perfectly  clear,  however  it  may 
be  to  others,  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  chance  in  the 
world,  at  least  within  any  reasonable  period,  that  the  nations 
will  reach  such  an  agreement  and  maintain  it.  And  with- 
out such  a  common  agreement  it  is,  in  my  judgment,  as  in- 
evitable as  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun  that  sooner  or 
later,  from  a  nation  which  uses  vast  quantities  of  two  metals 
in  its  currency,  of  which  one  is  greatly  overvalued,  as  is  the 
case  in  the  United  States  to-day,  the  more  valuable  will  flee 
away  into  foreign  parts  and  the  less  valuable  will  be  left 
master  of  the  field. 

Prof.  Jevons,  following  Mr.  Joseph  Lowe  and  Mr.  G. 
Poulett  Scrope,  proposes  the  establishment  of  a  government 
department  the  officers  of  which  "  would  collect  the  current 


The  Monetary  Problem.  267 

prices  of  commodities  in  all  the  principal  markets  of  the 
kingdom,  and,  by  a  well-defined  system  of  calculations,  would 
compute  from  these  data  the  average  variations  in  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  gold.  The  decisions  of  this  commission 
would  be  published  monthly,  and  payments  [that  is,  deferred 
payments]  would  be  adjusted  in  accordance  with  them.  Thus, 
suppose  that  a  debt  of  one  hundred  pounds  was  incurred 
upon  the  1st  of  July,  1875,  and  was  to  be  paid  back  on  the 
1st  July,  1878;  if  the  commission  had  decided  in  June, 
1878,  that  the  value  of  gold  had  fallen  in  the  ratio  of  106  to 
100  in  the  interval,  then  the  creditor  would  claim  an  increase 
of  six  per  cent  in  the  nominal  amount  of  the  debt,"  and 
vice  versa  if  the  value  of  gold  had  risen. 

Before  I  leave  this  branch  of  my  subject  let  me  just  allude 
to  a  matter  which  has  been  much  debated,  and  in  regard  to 
which  apparently  little  more  than  a  petty  national  jealousy 
has  hitherto  prevented  the  consummation  of  a  great  reform : 
I  mean  the  establishment  of  a  convenient  international 
money  by  the  adjustment  of  the  values  of  the  several  cur- 
rencies. A  reduction  of  the  value  of  the  American  dollar, 
and  a  similar  reduction  in  other  American  coins  of  about 
three  and  a  half  per  cent,  would  make  our  half -eagle  of  pre- 
cisely the  same  value  as  the  French  napoleon,  and  a  reduc- 
tion of  less  than  one  per  cent  in  the  value  of  the  English 
sovereign  would  make  it  an  exact  equivalent  also.  Simi- 
lar adjustments  could  readily  be  made  in  the  coins  of  other 
nations,  the  whole  resulting  in  a  great  simplification  of  all 
commercial  exchange. 

The  exchangeable  value  of  commodities  having  been  set- 
tled upon  by  the  use  of  some  standard  of  value,  it  is  not  at 
all  necessary  that  the  commodity  or  commodities  which  form 
the  standard  should  be  used  in  the  exchange.  That  is  a 
matter  of  very  minor  importance,  and  it  is  the  lack  of  recog- 
nition of  this  fact  which  is  at  the  bottom  of  almost  all  the 
financial  heresies  of  the  day,  and  of  any  day.  Instead  of  the 
currency,  of  whatever  kind,  a  page  of  a  book,  or  a  sheet  of 
pupur,  with  pen  and  ink  or  a  lead-pencil,  or  the  side  of  a 
barn  or  a  saloon  window  and  a  piece  of  chalk,  or  even  a 
good  memory,  will  do  perfectly.  Suppose  I  buy  from  a 
farmer  hay,  and  wheat,  and  butter,  and  eggs,  and  beef,  and 
mutton,  and  strawberries,  and  apples,  and  I  put  down  upon 
a  memorandum  book  the  articles  that  I  buy  and  the  prices 
at  which  I  buy  them.  And  the  farmer  buys  from  me  spades, 
and  plows,  and  harrows,  and  forks,  and  mowing  machines, 


268  The  Monetary  Problem. 

as  he  wants  them,  and  I  put  them  down  with  their  prices 
upon  my  memorandum  book ;  when  I  get  to  the  foot  of  the 
page  or  to  the  end  of  the  month  or  the  year,  I  find  that  the 
two  sides  balance,  and  the  farmer  and  I  are  quits ;  or  I  find 
that  he  still  owes  me  a  sum  of  money,  and  I  send  word  to 
him  that  I  am  ready  for  my  winter's  supply  of  potatoes. 
This  is  a  type  of  a  myriad  of  transactions — of  a  number  far 
beyond  computation. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  banking  and 
paper  money — two  things  which  are  classed  together,  but 
which  have  no  necessary  connection,  and  which  I  am  inclined 
to  believe,  in  the  most  healthy  condition  of  money  and  ex- 
change relations,  would  have  no  connection  whatever.  We 
are  so  accustomed  to  bank-notes  in  this  country  that  many 
people — undoubtedly,  I  imagine,  the  vast  majority  of  the 
agitators  of  the  land  at  least— suppose  that  the  issue  of  cur- 
rency is  the  principal  function  of  the  banks.  Nothing  could 
be  farther  from  the  truth,  although,  curiously  enough,  it 
seems  to  have  crept  into  the  syllabus  which  has  been  pro- 
vided for  my  lecture  ;  at  least  that  is  what  seems  to  me  to 
be  implied  by  the  sentence,  "  What  is  the  true  banking  sys- 
tem for  the  American  nation  ?  "  I  presume  that  what  is 
mainly  meant  is :  In  what  manner,  if  in  any,  should  paper 
money  be  issued  in  the  United  States  ?  For  the  purpose  of 
making  this  clear,  let  us  examine  into  the  true  function  of 
banking  and  into  the  nature  and  peculiarities  of  paper 
money. 

What  is  a  bank  ?  It  is  an  institution  which  receives  from 
its  customers  and  cares  for  the  funds  of  which  they  have  no 
immediate  need,  and  it  makes  its  profit  by  loaning  to  its  cus- 
tomers at  interest  such  portion  of  these  funds  as  experience 
has  shown  that  it  can  judiciously  part  with,  reserving,  how- 
ever, beyond  that  which  is  likely  to  be  drawn,  a  considerable 
additional  amount  as  a  margin  of  safety.  It  usually  pays  no 
interest  to  its  depositors,  and  as  in  case  it  is  successful  it  re- 
ceives a  large  amount  of  interest  from  its  borrowers,  it  fre- 
quently makes  handsome  profits.  It  earns  its  money  honest- 
ly, for  it  is  serviceable  both  ways ;  it  relieves  its  depositors 
of  irksome  care,'  while  it  is  bound  to  deliver  their  money  the 
moment  it  is  called  for,  and  it  furnishes  money  to  those  who 
are  in  need  at  the  market  rate,  or  often  below  the  market 
rate. 

I  have  given  a  very  brief  description  of  a  bank  as  a  busi- 
ness institution.  But  such  a  description  gives  very  little 


The  Monetary  Problem.  269 

idea  of  its  importance  as  an  agent  in  the  modern  business 
community.  The  depositor,  when  he  has  once  placed  his 
money  in  bank,  does  not  usually  go  after  it  again  when  he 
wishes  to  use  it ;  he  merely  gives  a  check  or  order  upon  the 
bank  to  the  party  to  whom  he  desires  to  convey  the  money. 
Nor  does  this  man  usually  go  to  the  bank  for  the  money ; 
ordinarily  he  either  hands  the  check  to  another  party  to 
whom  he  wishes  to  pay  money,  or  he  deposits  it  to  his  own 
credit  in  the  same  or  another  bank.  If  he  deposits  it  in  the 
same  bank,  the  clerk  of  the  bank  simply  makes  the  proper 
charges  upon  the  books,  and  the  transaction  is  closed,  as  I 
have  already  shown  in  the  transactions  between  the  farmer 
and  myself,  without  payment  of  any  money.  If  the  check 
is  deposited  in  another  bank,  then  the  transaction  is  closed 
in  a  similar  way  through  the  clearing  house. 

The  clearing  house  is  the  bank  of  the  banks.  In  New 
York,  for  instance,  every  morning  clerks  from  each  of  the 
associated  banks  proceed  to  the  clearing  house,  carrying 
along  with  them  in  classified  packages  the  checks  drawn 
upon  other  banks  which  were  received  on  deposit  the  pre- 
vious day.  These  packages  are  there  exchanged,  and  each 
bank  has  its  account  stated  just  as  I  had  with  the  farmer  in 
the  former  case.  If  I  represent  bank  No.  1,  the  clearing 
house  owes  me  for  all  the  bundles  of  checks  which  I  present, 
drawn  upon  banks  Nos.  2,  3, 4,  5,  etc.,  and  in  turn  I  owe  the 
clearing  house  for  all  the  bundles  of  checks  upon  bank  No. 
1  presented  by  the  clerks  from  banks  Nos.  2,  3,  4,  5,  etc. 
My  account  is  footed,  and  results  in  a  balance  owing ^  to  or 
by  my  bank  as  the  case  may  be,  and  this  balance  is  adjusted 
by  the  exchange  of  certificates  representing  gold  coin  de- 
posited in  the  United  States  Treasury,  and  by  a  small 
amount  in  legal  tenders  and  in  gold  coin  itself.  The 
amount  of  ordinary  money  used  in  these  stupendous  trans- 
actions is  almost  infinitesimal.  You  will  get  some  idea  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  operations  involved  from  this  extract 
from  a  letter  from  my  friend  Mr.  William  A.  Camp,  man- 
ager of  the  New  York  Clearing  House : 

"The  transactions  of  this  city,  Brooklyn,  and  Jersey 
City,  as  settled  by  checks  passing  through  the  New  York 
Clearing  House,  have  averaged  per  year  for  the  past  five 
years  $34,449,577,235.15.  The  average  balances  resulting 
from  these  exchanges  were  $1,647,027,594.22. 

"  The  average  exchanges  per  day  for  the  same  period  were 
$113,019,011.01,  and  the  balances  $5,403,941.40.* 


270  The  Monetary  Problem. 

The  exchanges  for  yesterday,  Saturday,  January  23, 1892, 
amounted  to  $139,511,549,28,  and  the  balances  to  $4,102,- 
630.20. 

I  greatly  regret  that  I  am  compelled  to  make  the  briefest 
possible  mention  of  the  last  and  most  powerful  device  of 
modern  banking.  This  is  the  combination  of  the  associated 
banks  in  times  of  panic  and  business  stress,  under  a  compact 
by  which  they  agree  to  make  common  cause  in  support  of 
public  credit,  through  the  issue  of  clearing-house  certifi- 
cates to  such  of  their  members  as  may  be  threatened  with 
disaster  because  of  inability  to  meet  instantly  such  demands 
as  may  be  made  upon  them.  It  seems  not  too  much  to  hope 
that  through  this  expedient  a  money  crisis  may  hereafter  be 
usually  brought  to  a  halt  in  its  early  stages  unless  bad  busi- 
ness methods  and  actual  insolvency  should  be  at  the  root  of 
the  trouble. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  relative  importance  of  certain 
items  in  the  accounts  of  the  banks,  without  going  into  con- 
fusing details,  I  may  say  that  for  the  week  ending  yesterday 
the  banks  in  the  New  York  Clearing  House  had  in  their 
vaults,  on  the  average,  specie  and  legal  tenders  amounting 
to  $157,371,000,  while  they  owed  their  depositors  $497,472,- 
400,  and  their  total  circulation  amounted  to  $5,566,700, 
numbers  of  the  banks  having  none  and  most  of  them  hav- 
ing less  than  $50,000  apiece.  They  have  so  little  because  it 
is  not  profitable  to  them,  and  they  only  have  so  much  be- 
cause upon  the  national  banks  the  law  seeks  to  urge  it. 
This  is  a  somewhat  significant  fact  when  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  the  cry  of  the  demagogue  against  the  national 
banks  because  of  the  enormous  privilege  which  they  enjoy 
in  the  issue  of  circulating  notes. 

In  1861,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  there  were  in  cir- 
culation in  this  country  more  than  10,000  different  kinds  of 
notes  "  issued  by  the  authority  of  thirty-four  different  States 
and  under  more  than  forty  different  statutes."  The  circula- 
tion amounted  to  $202,000,000,  and  bad  enough  a  great  deal 
of  it  was.  "  Wild-cat "  banks  were  organized  in  all  sorts  of 
out-of-the-way  places,  merely  for  the  purpose  of  foisting 
their  notes  upon  the  people,  and  all  sorts  of  schemes  were 
adopted  to  get  these  notes  into  circulation.  And,  of  course, 
the  loss  by  the  failure  of  the  banks  to  redeem  their  notes 
was  enormous,  and,  as  in  all  cases  of  an  imperfect  or  bad 
currency,  the  greatest  sufferers  were  the  poorest  and  most 
needy  of  the  people. 


The  Monetary  Problem.  271 

When  the  National  Bank  Act  was  passed,  all  these  bank 
issues  were  taxed  out  of  existence,  and  they  were  gradually 
replaced  by  the  notes  of  the  national  banks,  which  at  one 
time  amounted  to  $352,394,346,  and  now  amount  to  about 
$173,000,000.  They  can  be  increased  to  any  extent,  pro- 
vided the  banks  are  willing  to  pay  the  cost  of  issuing  and 
circulating  them. 

These  notes  are  receivable  for  taxes  and  all  other  dues  to 
the  United  States  Government  excepting  duties  on  imports, 
and  are  secured  by  a  deposit  of  United  States  bonds,  worth 
more  than  the  value  of  the  notes.  The  banks  are  obliged 
to  redeem  them  on  presentation  in  "  lawful  money,"  which 
means  coin  or  legal  tenders.  In  case  the  banks  fail  to  re- 
deem them,  the  Government  undertakes  to  do  so.  They  are, 
therefore,  safe,  if  the  Government  is  financially  solvent,  and 
they  pass  freely  all  over  the  country,  although,  of  course, 
not  outside  of  it  excepting  by  special  contract.  They  are, 
therefore,  beyond  comparison,  better  than  those  which  they 
superseded.  If  we  must  have  a  currency  consisting  in  part 
of  bank  notes,  it  will  be  difficult  to  devise  anything  superior 
to  these. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  Government  issues  of  paper  currency. 
Of  these  the  history  is  long,  and,  truth  to  say,  it  has  been  for 
the  most  part  a  sad,  sad  history  of  disaster,  of  broken  for- 
tunes, and  of  broken  lives  and  broken  hearts. 

I  believe  our  first  record  dates  back  to  the  beginning  of 
the  ninth  century,  and  our  chronicler  is  the  traveler  Marco 
Polo,  who  found  in  China  a  currency  called  "  chao,"  made 
of  the  inner  bark  of  the  mulberry  tree,  the  pieces  having 
value  according  to  their  size,  and  being  issued  "with  as 
much  solemnity  and  authority  as  if  they  were  of  pure  gold 
or  silver."  This  money  was  issued  in  enormous  quantities 
and  rapidly  depreciated  in  exchangeable  value,  so  that  in 
1448  it  was  worth  0-003,  and  after  1455  it  ceases  to  be  men- 
tioned. 

The  Persians  followed  about  1294  with  a  paper  money  in 
which  they  imitated  the  Chinese,  and  which  they  called  by 
the  same  name.  "  After  two  or  three  days  of  enforced  cir- 
culation the  markets  were  closed,  the  people  rose,  the  offi- 
cials were  murdered,  and  the  project  was  abandoned." 

Passing  by  the  experience  of  other  nations  and  coming 
across  seas,  we  find  the  various  American  colonies  also  buy- 
ing their  experience.  It  is  strange  how  peoples  as  well  as 
people  so  generally  desire  personally  "  to  see  the  folly  "  of 


272  The  Monetary  Problem. 

those  things  of  which  their  fathers  tell  them.  They  do  not 
seem  to  realize  the  advantages  of  the  discrimination  which 
was  so  well  expressed  by  a  certain  brilliant  lawyer  and  promi- 
nent New  York  Republican  when  he  said :  "  I  may  be  a 
Eepublican,  but  it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  I  am 

always  a fool."  The  nations  seem  to  be  pretty  much 

always fools  when  it  comes  to  certain  questions. 

One  after  another  the  several  colonies  undertook  to  eke 
out  their  slender  supply  of  currency  by  the  use  of  paper 
notes.  These  bills  were  usually  issued  at  first  in  small 
amounts  ;  then  came  by  degrees  greater  and  greater  issues ; 
"  new  tenors  "  would  be  issued  to  take  up  "  old  tenors  "  at  a 
specified  rate,  and  these  again  would  perhaps  be  followed  by  a 
third.  And  of  course  it  was  nuts  to  the  politicians,  as  it  is 
to-day,'  and  has  always  been.  As  General  Walker  says,  speak- 
ing of  Ehode  Island :  " '  Governors  were  elected  and  turned 
out,  as  the  different  interests'  happened  to  prevail.'  The 
debtor  party  needed  only  to  come  into  power  once  in  ten  or 
five  years  to  secure  the  privilege  of  paying  their  creditors 
off  at  pretty  much  any  rate  they  might  choose  to  fix  as  con- 
venient and  agreeable  to  themselves."  What  the  debtor 
party  now  propose  we  shall  see  when  we  come  to  consider 
Senator  Peffer  and  the  Farmers'  Alliance.  The  Rhode 
Island  notes  were  finally  redeemed  at  the  rate  of  6  shillings 
lawful  money  for  £8  old  tenor  notes,  and  this  is  a  fair  sam- 
ple of  the  result  elsewhere. 

In  Pennsylvania  the  paper  money  was  based  upon  the 
land,  and  Governor  Pownall  wrote :  "  I  will  venture  to  say 
that  there  never  was  a  wiser  or  a  better  measure,  never  one 
better  calculated  to  serve  the  uses  of  an  increasing  country ; 
that  there  never  was  a  measure  more  steadily  or  more  faith- 
fully pursued  for  forty  years  together  than  the  loan  office  in 
Pennsylvania."  Yet  this  currency  depreciated  so  that  in 
1748  exchange  on  London  was  at  180  or  190. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  war  for  independence  came  a 
new  flood  of  bills  from  the  presses  of  the  colonies,  as  well 
as  a  continental  currency  issued  by  the  authority  of  Con- 
gress. Of  these  new  colonial  bills  I  happen  to  have  speci- 
mens on  the  desk  before  me  which  I  have  had  in  my  posses- 
sion more  years  than  I  care  to  mention.  They  are  dated  in 
1772, 1773, 1774,  and  1776.  I  did  not  receive  them  until  after 
those  dates.  You  would  probably  be  interested  in  examin- 
ing them,  but  they  are  too  frail  now  for  it  to  be  safe  to  pass 
them  around  the  room.  These  which  I  hold  in  my  hand 


The  Monetary  Problem.  273 

were  issued  by  the  Colony  of  New  Jersey,  these  by  Mary- 
land, these  again  by  Pennsylvania,  and  these  by  the  coun- 
ties of  New  Castle,  Kent,  and  Sussex  upon  Delaware ;  of 
the  latter,  this  for  10  shillings  was  printed  by  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  D.  Hall.  It  has  upon  one  side  of  it  an  im- 
posing procession,  consisting  of  a  stork  or  pelican  or  bird  of 
that  ilk,  followed  by  an  elephant  not  quite  so  tall,  and  a 
beast  which  I  am  not  quite  sure  of,  but  which  is  either  a 
contemplative  cat  with  its  finger  in  its  mouth,  or  an  owl,  or 
something  of  that  sort.  And  it  also  has  upon  it  the  usual 
inscription,  "  To  counterfeit  is  death." 

The  issue  of  continental  currency  began  in  June,  1775, 
with  $2,000,000.  By  December,  1776,  there  were  $25,000,- 
000  outstanding,  and  the  bills  were  at  fifty  per  cent  discount. 
In  December,  1778,  when  the  issue  amounted  to  over  $100,- 
000,000,  Congress  issued  an  address  in  which  it  was  written  : 
"  We  should  pay  an  ill  compliment  to  the  understanding 
and  honor  of  every  true  American  were  we  to  adduce  many 
arguments  to  show  the  baseness  or  bad  policy  of  violating 
our  national  faith,  or  omitting  to  pursue  the  measures  ne- 
cessary to  preserve  it.  A  bankrupt,  faithless  republic  would 
be  a  novelty  in  the  political  world,  and  appear  among  reputa- 
ble nations  like  a  common  prostitute  among  chaste  and  re- 
spectable matrons.  .  .  .  Apprised  of  these  consequences, 
knowing  the  value  of  national  character,  and  impressed  with 
a  due  sense  of  the  immutable  laws  of  justice  and  honor,  it 
is  impossible  that  America  should  think  without  horror  of 
such  an  execrable  deed."  Strong  words !  The  issues  were 
heavily  increased  during  the  year  1779.  In  January,  coin 
was  worth  8  to  1 ;  in  May,  24  to  1 ;  in  October,  30  to  1 ;  in 
November,  38£  to  1.  In  March,  1780,  certificates  were  issued 
at  the  rate  of  1  to  40,  and  these  new  certificates  soon  sank 
to  one  eighth  of  -their  value.  The  greater  part  of  the 
original  issue  was  not  brought  in  for  redemption,  but  after 
about  a  year  more  fell  to  1,000  to  1,  and  then,  as  Dr.  Ram- 
sey says,  "  Like  an  aged  man,  expiring  by  the  decays  of  Na- 
ture, without  a  sigh  or  a  groan,  it  gently  fell  asleep  in  the 
hands  of  its  last  possessors."  The  total  war  issues  of  colonial 
and  continental  currency  up  to  1783  were  about  $450,000,- 
000.  Dr.  Ramsey  states  the  results  thus :  "  The  property 
of  the  inhabitants,  in  a  considerable  degree,  changed  its 
owners.  Many  opulent  persons,  of  ancient  families,  were 
ruined  by  selling  paternal  estates  for  a  depreciating  paper 
currency,  which  in  a  few  weeks  would  not  replace  half  of 


274  The  Monetary  Problem. 

the  real  property  in  exchange  for  which  it  was  obtained. 
Many  bold  adventurers  made  fortunes  in  a  short  time  by 
running  in  debt  beyond  their  abilities.  Prudence  ceased  to 
be  a  virtue  and  rashness  usurped  its  place." 

One  more  illustration  before  we  come  down  to  our  own 
time.  In  this  I  shall  mainly  condense  from  Prof.  Walker, 
whom  in  many  cases  I  have  followed  heretofore. 

In  1789  revolutionary  France  was  hard  pressed  for  money ; 
the  Minister  Neckar  opposed  the  issue  of  paper.  The  ex- 
perience of  France  under  John  Law  had  been  bitter ;  the 
struggle  was  long.  But  the  advocates  of  paper  money  pre- 
vailed. A  speaker  argued  before  the  Constituent  Assembly : 
"  Paper  money  under  a  despotism  is  dangerous.  It  favors 
corruption ;  but  in  a  nation  constitutionally  governed,  which 
itself  takes  care  of  its  own  notes,  which  determines  their 
number  and  their  use,  that  danger  no  longer  exists."  Have 
we  not  heard  something  similar  to  this  in  more  recent  times  ? 

It  was  determined  to  make  the  paper  absolutely  safe.  It 
was  based  upon  the  church  and  other  lands  which  had  been 
confiscated  and  made  the  property  of  the  state.  Mirabeau 
said  it  was  in  vain  to  "  assimilate  assignats,  secured  on  the 
solid  basis  of  these  domains,  to  an  ordinary  paper  money 
having  a  forced  circulation.  They  represent  real  property, 
the  most  secure  of  all  possessions,  the  soil  on  which  we 
tread."  Have  we  not  recently  heard  something  like  this 
also  ?  Mirabeau  said  :  "  This  paper  money  can  never  become 
redundant,  any  more  than  the  humidity  of  the  atmosphere 
can  become  excessive,  which  descends  in  rills,  finds  the  river, 
and  is  at  length  lost  in  the  mighty  ocean." 

The  first  issue  of  400,000,000  francs  was  followed  in  1790 
by  a  further  issue  of  800,000,000.  It  was  provided  that  the 
paper  paid  into  the  Treasury  should  be  burned,  and  solemnly 
decreed  that  the  total  amount  should  never  exceed  1,200,- 
000,000  francs;  and  in  the  middle  of  the  following  year 
600,000,000  more  were  issued.  Then  coin  began  to  disap- 
pear and  industry  collapsed.  Factories  were  closed  and 
"  vast  numbers  of  workmen,  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  were 
thrown  out  of  employment."  Capitalists  declined  to  em- 
bark in  business,  and  the  "  demand  for  labor  was  still  further 
diminished."  "  The  business  of  France  dwindled  to  a  mere 
living  from  hand  to  mouth."  President  White  says  :  "  Com- 
merce was  dead  ;  betting  took  its  place."  As  always  when 
the  currency  is  inflated,  the  poor  were  the  worst  sufferers,  the 
gamblers  and  the  speculators  the  ones  who  reaped  a  profit. 


The  Monetary  Problem.  275 

The  debtor  class  came  forward  with  a  demand  for  further 
issues  to  ecale  down  their  debts ;  300,000,000  more  were  put 
out,  and  to  them  were  added  in  '92  another  600,000,000. 
"  Still,  as  the  assignats  poured  from  the  Treasury  in  increas- 
ing volume,  the  cry  of  the  scarcity  of  the  circulating 
medium  grew  louder."  Then  the  cry  became  :  "  Bread  or 
blood."  The  Government  felt  that  the  depreciation  in  the 
currency  must  be  stopped :  "  the  purchase  of  specie  was 
forbidden  under  penalty  of  six  years  in  irons."  "  Then 
came  a  law  prohibiting  the  sale  of  assignats  below  their 
nominal  value,  on  penalty  of  twenty  years  in  chains.  Soon 
came  another  law,  punishing  with  death  investment  of  capi- 
tal in  foreign  countries."  (Do  you  remember  that  in  1864, 
under  the  lead  of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  the  United  States 
Congress  forbade  the  purchase  and  sale  of  gold  on  time,  with 
the  immediate  effect  of  increasing  the  premium  with  such 
rapidity  that  the  act  was  repealed  within  fifteen  days  ?)  By 
the  end  of  1794,  7,000,000,000  francs  had  been  issued ;  by 
about  a  year  later  45,000,000,000  had  been  issued,  of  which 
36,000,000,000  were  in  actual  circulation— about  $20  worth 
of  which  would  have  bought  a  five-cent  measure  of  peanuts 
if  they  happened  to  be  in  the  market. 

Then  came  the  "  new  tenor."  "  Territorial  mandates  " 
were  issued  for  assignats  at  the  rate  of  1  to  30.  These  rap- 
idily  depreciated  until  they  were  worth  one  one-thousandth 
of  their  nominal  value,  making  the  assignats  worth  about 
one  thirty- thousandth.  This  was  the  end.  July  1, 1796, 
about  seven  years  after  the  first  embarkation  upon  this  peril- 
ous voyage,  a  decree  was  issued  authorizing  every  one  "  to 
transact  business  in  the  money  and  on  the  terms  he  chose." 
Specie  immediately  reappeared  in  circulation,  goods  and 
commodities  of  all  sorts  became  very  cheap,  the  exchanges 
turned  in  favor  of  France,  a  metallic  currency  was  perma- 
nently restored,  "  and  during  all  the  terrific  wars  of  Napo- 
leon the  metallic  standard  was  always  maintained  at  full 
value." 

Within  the  present  century  many  nations  have  gone 
through  the  delectable  experience  of  an  inconvertible  paper 
currency — France,  Russia,  Austria,  Italy,  certain  countries 
of  South  America,  and  the  United  States — and  many  of  them 
are  still  wrestling  with  it.  Our  own  experience  is  unfamiliar 
only  to  the  younger  of  you,  and  yet,  so  short  is  memory,  it 
seems  that  the  story  must  be  explicitly  recalled  to  prevent 
our  again  lapsing  into  the  same  condition,  without  the 


276  The  Monetary  Problem. 

slightest  justification  under  heaven  excepting  the  hope  on 
the  part  of  certain  political  farmers,  political  merchants,  or 
political  bankers,  that  they  may  in  the  resulting  scramble 
be  able  to  get  the  better  of  those  to  whom  they  now  owe 
money,  or  reap  a  profit  out  of  the  gambling  which  must 
inevitably  result. 

The  rebellion  overtly  began  in  April,  1861.  The  bill 
authorizing  the  issue  of  legal-tender  currency  to  the  amount 
of  $150,000,000,  subsequently  increased  to  $400,000,000, 
became  a  law  in  February  of  the  next  year.  By  July  gold 
was  at  20  per  cent  premium ;  six  months  later  it  was  at  60 
per  cent  premium ;  in  another  month  it  was  at  72  per  cent ; 
then  it  fell  off  for  a  while,  but  in  April,  1864,  it  was  at  78 
per  cent ;  June  15,  it  was  at  97  per  cent ;  fourteen  days  later 
it  was  at  150  per  cent ;  and  July  11,  it  was  at  185J  per  cent 
premium,  its  highest  point.  All  prices  were  deranged,  fami- 
lies were  impoverished,  speculation  became  wild ;  conserva- 
tive, careful  business  men  in  great  numbers  were  ruined, 
reckless  gamblers  accumulated  enormous  fortunes. 

But  the  worst  results  experienced  in  previous  cases  were 
not  reached.  A  limit  to  the  issues  was  put  and  maintained ; 
subsequently,  under  the  wise  management  of  Secretary  Mc- 
Culloch,  the  amount  outstanding  was  even  reduced  to  $356,- 
000,000,  and,  though  the  contraction  was  there  stayed,  the 
nation  nerved  herself  to  the  re-establishment  of  her  credit, 
and  upon  the  first  of  January,  1879,  specie  payment  was 
resumed. 

As  we  have  seen,  six  years  earlier  we  had  placed  ourselves 
nominally  upon  a  gold  basis ;  but  in  the  February  preceding 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments  the  coinage  of  the  legal- 
tender  silver  dollar  had  been  re-authorized  at  the  rate  of 
$2,000,000  per  month.  This  rate  has  been  changed  from 
time  to  time,  and  the  amount  of  silver  purchased  by  the 
Treasury  is  now  4,500,000  ounces  per  month,  or  more  than 
the  total  amount  of  silver  at  present  produced  in  this  coun- 
try. The  Treasury  pays  the  market  price  for  the  silver, 
which  is  now  71^-  cents  for  the  amount  contained  in  a  dol- 
lar, and  gets  it  off  at  par  into  circulation  when  possible,  or 
issues  paper  currency  representing  it.  It  has  been  found 
impossible  to  circulate  any  large  amount  of  the  metal  itself, 
and  the  Treasury  Department  has  been  compelled  to  con- 
struct warehouses  to  store  it  in.  The  amount  now  so  stored 
and  in  circulation  is  between  four  and  five  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  As  Mr.  David  A.  Wells  graphically  describes  it, 


The  Monetary  Problem.  277 

it  would  require  an  army  of  much  more  than  200,000  men, 
each  bearing  more  than  100  pounds  of  metal,  to  carry  it. 

Now,  in  this  situation  there  are  two  things  to  be  consid- 
ered :  First,  the  amount  of  our  circulation  to-day,  coin  and 
paper  together,  is  vastly  greater  than  at  any  previous  period. 
I  am  aware  that  Senator  Peffer  states  the  contrary,  but  this 
is  only  one  of  the  innumerable  misstatements  and  misrep- 
resentations with  which  his  book  is  filled  from  cover  to 
cover.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  a  letter  to  the 
recent  Bankers'  Convention  at  New  Orleans,  said:  "The 
amount  of  money  in  circulation  is  greater  than  at  any  pre- 
vious time  in  the  history  of  the  country,  and  more  per 
capita  than  in  any  of  the  leading  commercial  nations  of  the 
world  except  France."  It  is  stated  that  in  1860  our  per 
capita  circulation  was  $13.83.  It  was  $10.23  in  1862  ;  $20.57 
in  1865  (Peffer  says  $58.95);  $17.50  in  1870;  $15.32  in  1878, 
and  it  is  now  calculated  at  from  $23.45  to  $24.56. 

Since  1880  the  per  capita  circulation  has  increased  from 
$18.79  to,  say,  $23.45.  During  the  same  period  the  rate  of 
failures  in  business  has  increased  from  1  in  158  in  1880  to 
1  in  102  in  1890. 

The  circulation  is  much  greater  per  capita  than  that  of 
Great  Britain,  the  leading  commercial  nation.  And  yet  the 
cry  is  now,  as  during  the  issue  of  French  assignats,  Oli- 
ver's cry  for  "  more."  One  bill  that  I  have  before  me  calls 
for  $2,000,000,000  of  paper,  each  bill  being  absolutely  money 
and  not  in  the  form  of  promise.  Colonel  Livingston,  of  the 
Georgia  State  Alliance,  says :  "  All  that  we  insist  upon  is 
thus  briefly  stated  :  We  demand  that  the  amount  of  circu- 
lating medium  be  speedily  increased  to  not  less  than  $50 
per  capita."  Senator  Peffer  presents  a  bill  for  the  issue  of 
notes  in  twenty-eight  different  denominations  from  one  mill 
to  $5,000.  Now,  how  large  a  proportion  of  the  population, 
think  you,  habitually  carry  around  with  them  on  the  aver- 
age $10  apiece,  or  would  have  any  possible  need  to  do  so  ? 
With  our  modern  credit  system  and  banking  facilities,  the 
need  of  money  in  hand,  instead  of  being  increased,  has  been 
vastly  reduced,  immeasurably  reduced.  I  had  expected  to 
spend  some  time  upon  this  point,  but  my  restrictions  ren- 
der this  impossible.  You  must  draw  your  own  inferences 
from  what  I  have  said  of  the  banking  system. 

Mr.  Peffer,  who  has  been  lifted  into  the  prominence  of 
the  United  States  Senate,  where  he  appears  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  movement  whicH  is  called  the  Farmers'  Al- 


278  The  Monetary  Problem. 

liance,  tells  us  what  is  to  be  done  with  the  new  "  money," 
as  he  calls  it.  It  is  to  be  loaned  at  one  per  cent  interest  to 
farmers  to  enable  them  to  pay  off  their  debts.  And  he 
says :  "  The  object  of  this  writing  is  to  show  an  honorable 
way  out  by  helping  the  poor  and  doing  no  wrong  to  the 
rich."  "  '  The  way  out '  proposes  to  help  debtors  not  to  get 
rid  of  their  debts,  but  to  pay  them,  and  in  good  money." 
History  has  shown  us  the  value  of  this  "  good  money."  The 
excuse  which  is  offered  is  that  the  debts  were  made  when 
the  circulation  was  larger,  and  that  their  payment  in  the 
present  circulation  would  be  an  unjust  burden.  This  is 
absolutely  false.  The  majority  of  these  debts  were  made  at 
a  time  when  the  per  capita  circulation  was  much  smaller 
than  at  present. 

The  assumption  that  an  inflated  circulation  would  aid  the 
farmer  and  the  laborer  is  the  wildest  absurdity.  All  history 
disproves  it.  It  is  the  speculator,  the  gambler,  who  is  prof- 
ited by  it.  It  is  customary  to  fling  at  Wall  Street  as  some- 
thing especially  hideous.  Peffer's  book  is  full  of  such 
flings.  Now,  if  I  had  time,  I  should  not  have  the  slightest 
difficulty  in  showing  that  Wall  Street  is  the  axle  upon 
which  the  business  wheel  of  the  country  turns ;  that,  rela- 
tively to  the  amount  of  business  transacted,  there  is  less 
financial  dishonesty  in  Wall  Street  than  anywhere  else  in 
the  country;  and  after  many  years'  experience  in  Wall 
Street,  I  can  earnestly  say  that  the  strongest  lesson  which  it 
conveys  to  my  mind  is  that  of  the  essential  honesty  of  human 
nature.  I  speak  of  Wall  Street  now,  however,  to  say  that 
Wall  Street  opposes  all  schemes  for  inflation,  notwithstand- 
ing that  Wall  Street  would  inevitably  profit  by  such 
schemes. 

Now,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  stop  to  give  the  data,  but 
it  is  a  notorious  fact  of  history,  of  which  any  of  you  can 
assure  himself  by  a  very  moderate  amount  of  study,  that 
when  the  circulation  has  become  very  meager,  in  proportion 
to  the  extent  of  the  demand  upon  it  for  exchanges,  prices 
have  fallen  to  a  very  low  point,  while,  contrariwise,  when 
the  circulation  has  been  abundant  or  excessive,  prices  have 
become  very  high.*  This  statement  will  be  recognized  as 

*  It  should  be  observed  that  I  have  endeavored  to  qualify  this  statement  in  such 
a  way  as  to  avoid  misconstruction.  I  have  no  disposition  to  enter  into  the  long 
discussion  upon  the  "  volume  of  currency."  My  friend  Mr.  Cowperthwait,  whose 
little  volume,  just  come  to  hand,  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  the  year, 
appears  to  me  to  spend  an  unnecessary  amount  of  space  upon  it.  I  whollv  agree 
with  him  that  the  extension  of  banking  and  the  credit  system  are  relegating  the 
matter  of  the  volume  of  the  currency  to  a  position  of  very  minor  importance,  and 


The  Monetary  Problem.  279 

almost  a  truism  ;  it  is  a  fact  within  the  experience  of  most 
of  you.  It  is  as  familiar  a  fact  that  the  rise  and  fall  are 
extremely  irregular  in  their  course  and  effect  in  regard  to 
different  commodities  and  different  services,  and  that  by 
such  fluctuation  in  the  currency  some  are  profited  and 
others  greatly  damaged.  Further,  there  is  not  the  slightest 
reason  to  expect  the  rate  of  interest  to  be  less  with  a  steady 
circulation  of  five  thousand  millions  than  with  a  steady  cir- 
culation of  one  thousand  millions.  Of  course,  with  a  fluc- 
tuating currency  everything  is  different. 

The  reason  that  laborers  and  farmers  suffer  from  an  in- 
flated currency  is  that  wages  are  always  slow  to  rise  and 
easy  to  fall ;  that  retail  prices,  and  especially  the  prices  of 
foreign  goods,  quickly  advance,  while  farm  products  advance 
but  slowly  and  unevenly.  Prof.  Perry  says:  "Wheat  was 
no  higher  in  currency  in  1873  than  it  was  in  gold  in  1860; 
hams  were  not ;  lard  was  not ;  and  salt  pork  was  not.  .  .  . 
But  harnesses,  boots  and  shoes,  hats  and  caps,  blankets,  all 
manner  of  clothing,  were  much  higher  in  1873  than  they 
were  in  1860.  These  manufactures  are  what  farmers  have 
to  buy.  .  .  .  The  shrewd  ones  always  take  advantage  of  the 
ignorant  ones  and  the  dishonest  ones  of  the  honest  ones. 
.  .  .  But  farmers  always  have  been  and  always  will  be  the 
greatest  losers  from  rag  money ;  partly  for  the  reason  that 
I  have  just  given  .  .  .  and  partly,  also,  because  it  takes  the 
farmer  almost  a  year  to  realize  on  his  crops,  and  he  can  not 
meanwhile  insure  himself  against  the  inevitable  changes  in 
the  currency." 

The  second  thing  to  be  considered  in  the  existing  situ- 
ation and  in  connection  with  the  proposed  passage  of  a  bill 
for  the  unlimited  free  coinage  of  silver  at  the  assumed  value 
of  $1-2929,  instead  of  the  present  market  value  of  93  cents 
per  ounce,  is  this  :  In  the  first  twenty  years  following  1849 
the  proportion  of  silver  to  gold  in  the  production  of  the 
mines  was  about  one  to  two  in  value.  In  the  time  which 
has  since  elapsed  the  proportion  has  been  pretty  nearly  re- 
versed, and  the  increased  ratio  of  the  silver  production,  com- 
bined with  the  change  of  standard  upon  the  part  of  Ger- 
many, and  perhaps  some  other  causes,  have  greatly  reduced 
the  market  value  of  silver.  Since  1873  the  value  of  silver 
has  fallen  37  cents  per  ounce.  During  the  previous  forty 

I  suppose  no  wise  man  would  contend  that  changes  in  price  and  changes  of  vol- 
ume have  been  constant  companions.  But  I  think  that  he  who  fails  to  se_e  that 
there  has  been  an  important  relation  between  these  two  things  misreads  history. 

19 


280  The  Monetary  Problem. 

years  the  extreme  fluctuations  in  value  had  been  within  5f 
cents  per  ounce.  That  we  are  on  the  brink  of  testing  to 
our  sorrow  the  truth  of  Gresham's  law  can  not  be  gainsaid. 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  purchase  of  silver  by  the  United 
States  Government  has  proceeded  very  much  farther  with- 
out apparent  disaster  of  a  serious  character  than  any  econo- 
mist supposed  in  advance  that  it  could  be  carried.  But,  as 
the  distinguished  president  of  a  leading  university  said  to 
me  the  other  day,  quoting  the  characteristically  irreverent 
modern  form  of  an  old  saying :  "  The  mills  of  the  gods 
grind  slowly,  but  they  get  there  just  the  same."  Last  win- 
ter, week  after  week,  we  saw  gold  leaving  the  country  by  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  and  the  millions,  and  though  a  most 
extraordinary  harvest  has  for  a  time  caused  the  current  to 
set  the  other  way,  and  in  part  to  fill  up  the  void  created, 
there  is  a  constant  danger  impending  of  a  renewal  of  the 
movement.  Moreover,  to  me  as  a  banker  it  seems  perfectly 
plain  that  already  for  more  than  a  year  past  the  business  of 
the  country  has  been  suffering,  and  suffering  severely,  from 
the  over  coinage  or  overpur  chase  of  silver. 

I  am  loaning  considerable  sums  of  money  upon  real 
estate  ;  but  how  do  I  loan  them  ?  I  am  doing  what  every 
careful  banker  must  do.  The  loans  are  to  be  returned  dur- 
ing a  period  of  eight  or  ten  years.  The  uncertainty  of  what 
may  occur  within  that  period  is  too  great  to  be  risked ;  I  am 
therefore  making  these  loans  upon  the  express  stipulation 
that  they  are  to  be  returned  in  gold  coin  of  the  present 
standard  of  weight  and  fineness.  Now,  without  some  con- 
dition of  this  kind,  little  business  can  be  done  which  in  its 
nature  involves  considerations  of  time.  Confidence  is  shaken ; 
business  enterprises  are  halting  ;  capitalists  hesitate  to  make 
time  loans,  and  the  market  is  flooded  with  funds  loanable  on 
demand,  while  prices  are  fluctuating  violently  and  specula- 
tion, especially  in  real  estate,  is  rampant. 

In  my  judgment,  an  "  elastic  "  currency  is  a  serious  evil, 
although  at  times  it  may  be  a  seeming  good,  for  the  reason 
that  its  elasticity  is  only  sufficiently  great  to  make  it  an  aid 
in  stimulating  and  supporting  speculation  in  periods  of  great 
extension  of  credit,  while  not  great  enough  to  relieve  the 
strain  in  periods  of  collapse.  Moreover,  the  elasticity  of  the 
credit  system,  which  is  inevitable,  makes  the  elasticity  of  any 
currency  the  merest  child's  play.  And  the  changing  of  the 
extent  and  character  of  the  currency  by  political  majorities 
— by  majorities  for  the  most  part  absolutely  ignorant  of  the 


The  Monetary  Problem.  281 

principles  of  economics  and  of  the  teachings  of  history,  and 
swept  momentarily  hither  and  thither  by  supposed  personal 
interest — is  an  immeasurable  evil.  In  my  judgment,  the  busi- 
ness of  the  nation  would  be  much  healthier  and  more  steadily 
prosperous  should  all  bank  notes  be  finally  retired,  excepting 
possibly  restricted  issues  for  isolated  localities,  should  the 
further  purchase  of  silver  be  prohibited,  and  a  considerable 
part  of  that  now  held  in  the  Treasury  (the  accumulation  of 
which  has  already  established  a  danger  of  the  first  magni- 
tude) be  sold,  if  and  as  it  can  be  sold,  and  consumed  in 
the  arts ;  and  should  the  legal-tender  currency  be  limited 
within  its  present  amount  or  even  narrower  bounds  by  con- 
stitutional provision,  except  as  representing  coin  actually  on 
deposit,  dollar  for  dollar.  What  is  now  seriously  proposed 
in  Congress  is  for  the  United  States  Government — that  is,  for 
ourselves— to  take  all  the  silver  in  the  world  that  may  be  of- 
fered at  $1.2929  per  ounce,  notwithstanding  the  market 
price  is  but  93  cents;  that  is,  to  offer  to  pay  39  per  cent 
more  than  it  is  worth  for  the  world's  stock  of  silver,  for  that 
would  be  the  result  so  long  as  we  possessed  gold  or  could  pay 
gold  values.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  this  is  the  only  instance 
in  history  where  a  nation  has  said,  or  proposes  to  say :  "  Here 
is  a  commodity  which  is  to  be  had  in  enormous  quantities 
at  a  certain  price  ;  come,  let  us  pay  for  it  a  vastly  higher 
price,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  one,  two,  three  hundred 
millions  of  dollars." 

Should  this  be  done,  there  are  three  alternative  results 
conceivable  :  1st,  that  the  market  price  of  silver  throughout 
the  world  should  not  rise ;  2d,  that  the  price  should  rise  to 
$1.2929 ;  and  3d,  that,  owing  to  the  fact  on  the  one  side  that 
there  would  be  a  customer  in  the  market  for  all  the  silver 
extant  or  producible  at  an  upset  price,  and  on  the  other  to 
the  counter  fact  that  there  would  be  a  large  number  of  com- 
peting sellers,  all  anxious  to  obtain  the  profit,  and  all  per- 
fectly certain  that — the  production  of  silver  remaining  as  at 
present  and  the  production  of  gold  not  greatly  increasing — 
no  power  upon  earth  could  raise  the  price  to  $1.2929  and 
keep  it  there,  the  price  would  constantly  fluctuate  with  the 
course  of  speculation,  but  below  the  higher  figure.  That 
the  last-named  result  would  inevitably  follow,  I  think  there 
is  no  room  for  any  doubt  on  the  part  of  any  sane  man.  And 
two  further  results  are  just  as  inevitable :  First,  that  all  prices 
would  become  irregular  and  all  business  speculative  and  un- 
certain, and,  second,  that  the  currency  would  be  depreciated 


282  The  Monetary  Problem. 

to  at  least  the  extent  of  the  difference  between  the  market 
price  of  silver  and  $1.2929,  and  all  persons  to  whom  debts 
are  owing  would  be  deliberately  swindled  out  of  that  portion 
of  their  claims — swindled,  that  is  to  say,  not  by  their  individ- 
ual debtors,  but  by  those  carrying  through  the  undertaking 
for  that  avowed  object.  This  is  a  beautiful  scheme  for  a 
civilized  people — for  those  claiming  to  be  "  in  the  fore- 
most files  of  time." 

Some  nights  ago,  after  several  hours  of  close  application 
in  the  preparation  of  this  essay,  I  was,  as  not  infrequently 
happens  on  such  occasions,  vainly  endeavoring  to  compose 
myself  to  rest.  I  suddenly  found  myself  climbing  an  Alpine 
height  along  the  sharp  edge  of  a  cliff,  guided  by  a  peasant 
woman  who  was  some  distance  above  me.  I  stumbled  and 
fell,  and  meantime  my  guide  continued  the  ascent  and  dis- 
appeared. When  I  recovered  my  footing,  I  saw  her  ap- 
proaching me  and  making  some  explanation  regarding  the 
impracticability  of  the  way.  As  she  did  so,  she  made  an  in- 
cautious step,  and,  her  foot  slipping,  she  shot  over  the  edge 
of  the  precipice,  and  as  I  leaned  forward  my  eye  followed 
her  down  —  down  —  down  —  down,  until  noiselessly  she 
stopped,  a  shapeless  blot  on  the  rock  a  thousand  feet  below. 
I  woke,  shuddering  with  inexpressible  horror  and  seeming  to 
hear  ringing  in  my  ears  my  own  shrill  agonized  cry,  and  like 
a  flash  I  realized  before  me  the  gulf  upon  the  edge  of  which 
we  are  now  standing. 


The  Monetary  Problem.  283 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  STARR  HOYT  NICHOLS  : 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  fault  with  the  sound  and  logical  lecture 
we  have  listened  to  this  evening.  The  speaker's  conclusions  are  justi- 
fied in  the  minds  of  most  thinking  men.  In  discussing  this  subject,  we 
must  first  have  a  clear  idea  of  what  money  is.  General  Walker's  defi- 
nition is  defective  in  that  it  does  not  take  into  account  the  large  amount 
of  private  money  there  is  in  the  world.  By  private  money  I  mean 
checks,  drafts,  etc.,  which  are  used  to  settle  obligations  between  those 
who  are  known  to  each  other  as  reliable.  Inasmuch  as  95  per  cent  of 
all  money  is  private,  a  definition  which  does  not  include  this  is  not  suf- 
ficient, and  we  must  get  another.  All  money  is  a  form  of  credit,  and 
there  are  two  kinds — public  money,  which  is  currency,  and  private 
money,  which  is  not.  Money  in  itself  is  a  tool — a  form  of  credit  for 
incomplete  transactions.  Money  represents  service.  We  desire  to 
have  it  because  by  its  use  we  can  secure  the  services  of  others.  At 
present,  95  per  cent  of  all  our  transactions  are  made  with  private 
money,  and  for  this  reason  a  small  amount  of  gold  bearing  the  Gov- 
ernment stamp  answers  for  an  enormous  amount  of  business.  Private 
money  is  always  here,  and  the  proportion  of  it  may  increase  to  96  or 
98  per  cent,  and  this  would  be  of  no  consequence.  It  is  not  necessary 
or  desirable  to  call  upon  the  Government  to  give  us  more  money,  for 
it  can  only  add  its  little  5  per  cent.  Better  were  it  to  add  to  the  95 
per  cent — to  increase  the  amount  of  private  money.  The  tendency  is 
not  to  increase  the  amount  of  public  credit,  but  of  private  credit.  The 
movement  in  Congress  to  increase  the  circulating  medium  is  wrong  in 
principle.  What  we  really  need  is  no  public  money  at  all,  but  all  pri- 
vate money.  Then  the  currency  would  be  perfect,  and  the  question 
would  be  taken  out  of  politics.  Nothing  ever  goes  current  but  service. 
If  the  Government  issues  money  and  gives  it  out  for  nothing,  it  is  not 
money ;  it  has  no  real  value ;  it  is  simply  a  "  give-away." 

How  came  gold  to  be  taken  as  the  final  standard  ?  Gold  has  value, 
and  has  it  for  the  same  reason  that  wheat  and  other  commodities  have 
values  ;  because  it  represents  the  amount  of  work  it  takes  to  produce 
it.  Silver  falls  because  it  can  be  produced  more  cheaply.  Service  is 
at  the  bottom  of  all  value.  Gold  is  a  better  standard  than  silver  be- 
cause the  cost  of  production  remains  more  nearly  stable.  Paper  has 
no  value  except  as  the  Government  says  there  is  behind  it  so  much 


284  The  Monetary  Problem. 

human  service.  Our  silver  certificates  do  not  represent  as  much  human 
service  as  our  gold  certificates.  For  the  effect  of  our  present  policy 
we  have  only  to  look  at  what  went  on  in  Paris  with  the  copper  syndi- 
cate. The  syndicate  agreed  to  take  all  the  copper  at  a  little  above  the 
market  price.  Immediately  all  the  small  mines  that  couldn't  be  made 
to  pay  at  the  market  price  went  to  work.  There  was  a  flood,  and  then 
a  break.  It  makes  no  difference  whether  it  is  the  Government  or  a 
syndicate,  copper  or  silver.  As  the  value  of  silver  falls,  more  is  pro- 
duced, because  the  profit  is  greater ;  it  pours  in,  and  the  Government 
will  break  in  time  just  as  the  syndicate  did. 

I  am  not  surprised  that  the  movement  for  free  coinage  is  so  strong 
in  the  South.  A  Southern  friend  said  to  me :  "  We  are  opposed,  tooth 
and  nail,  to  the  false  financiering  of  Mr.  Sherman."  The  people  there 
have  no  knowledge  of  finance ;  they  are  backward  in  all  that  makes 
for  civilization.  It  takes  a  vast  experience  in  large  operations  to  get  a 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  we  can  not  expect  a  farmer  to  under- 
stand finance  any  more  than  he  does  the  sailing  of  a  ship.  Every  sil- 
ver certificate  should  bear  on  it  not  "  This  is  one  dollar,"  but  "  This  is 
good  for  a  dollar's  worth  of  silver  " — whatever  the  price  may  be.  The 
tendency  is  more  and  more  toward  private  money.  When  clearing- 
house certificates  were  issued,  this  was  an  addition  to  our  private 
money.  A  panic  was  thus  prevented,  no  one  was  injured,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment was  not  called  upon  to  interfere. 

DR.  ROBERT  G.  ECCLES  : 

In  regard  to  public  and  private  money  there  is  no  difference  be- 
tween us.  As  to  paper  money,  1  occupy  the  ground  of  Prof.  Jevons, 
which  has  not  been  represented  here  to-night.  The  great  danger  is 
in  allowing  the  inflationist  to  hold  a  truth  which  we  deny.  The  in- 
flationists are  right  in  regard  to  paper  money.  The  Government  can 
support  a  large  amount  without  a  cent  behind  it.  The  danger  is  in 
having  that  money  in  such  shape  that  it  may  become  too  excessive  or 
too  short  for  the  demands  of  business,  so  that  it  is  like  a  rod  of  iron, 
not  expanding  and  contracting  as  business  does.  This  danger  is 
avoided  so  long  as  the  paper  is  only  issued  to  meet  the  demands  of 
commerce.  Such  a  condition  exists  in  the  circulation  of  the  national 
banks.  People  take  out  the  paper  when  business  demands  it  and  they 
can  afford  to  pay  the  interest ;  and  when  business  does  not  want  it,  it 
goes  back.  When  the  nation  issues  money,  some  one  has  to  say  how 
much,  and  we  are  likely  to  have  $200,000,000  issued  when  we  only 
need  $100,000,000. 

Labor  puts  no  value  on  anything,  as  the  last  speaker  has  asserted. 
It  is  desire,  human  desire,  that  gives  value.  A  laborer  may  spend 


The  Monetary  Problem.  285 

years  upon  a  thing  that  no  one  wants,  and  his  labor  is  lost.  Its  prod- 
uct has  no  value.  Or  in  five  minutes  he  may  produce  or  invent 
something  that  is  wanted,  and  then  it  will  have  great  value. 

Paper  money  is  in  demand  by  those  who  can  not  use  checks.  Its 
utility  will  float  it,  just  as  utility  floats  gold  and  silver.  It  will  float 
paper  with  the  assurance  that  the  amount  shall  not  expand  or  contract 
beyond  the  needs  of  business.  The  way  to  secure  this  is  to  have  a 
fund  to  redeem  the  surplus.  It  is  not  necessary  to  have  dollar  for  dol- 
lar, because  we  can  not  retire  all  the  paper,  and  there  is  no  use  in  hav- 
ing idle  gold  and  silver  lying  behind  it.  As  regards  the  depreciation 
of  Government  money,  the  greenbacker  would  say  that  during  the 
war  there  were  other  issues  of  paper  money  as  well  as  the  green- 
backs. The  Government  dishonored  greenbacks  by  refusing  to  take 
them  for  duties.  There  was  a  certain  amount  of  Government  money 
that  was  full  legal  tender,  and  that  money  kept  up  to  par,  and  even 
went  above  par,  because  it  was  more  convenient,  on  account  of  weight, 
than  coin.  Mr.  Potts  should  have  recognized  this. 

COLONEL  J.  HOWARD  COWPERTHWAIT  : 

I  have  been  much  interested  in  the  history  and  explanation  of 
money  to  which  we  have  listened,  but  the  real  problem  which  con- 
fronts the  country  has  not  been  stated.  The  problem  is  not  how  to 
avoid  free  coinage,  but  how  to  get  rid  of  the  present  law.  We  can 
easily  believe  that  a  free-coinage  bill  will  not  be  passed,  and  there  is 
little  doubt  that  the  President  would  veto  it  if  it  should  pass.  But  to 
get  rid  of  the  present  law  we  must  have  majorities  in  both  Houses,  and 
the  President's  signature  in  addition.  To  avoid  financial  disaster  we 
must  get  rid  of  the  present  law. 

Let  me  correct  what  appear  to  me  to  be  one  or  two  errors  which 
have  crept  into  this  discussion.  The  speaker  said  that  changes  in 
prices  necessarily  go  with  changes  in  the  volume  of  money.  In  the 
last  twenty  years  the  volume  of  money  has  increased  about  90  per 
cent,  or  $20  per  capita ;  but  prices  have  fallen  on  an  average  of  one 
third.  Not  only  so,  but  prices  have  fluctuated  widely  while  the  vol- 
ume of  currency  has  been  steadily  increasing.  Just  after  the  war  the 
volume  of  money  was  nearly  stationary,  but  prices  fluctuated  greatly. 

The  West  and  South  demand  more  money.  They  say  :  "  Our  prod- 
uce sells  for  six  hundred  millions  a  year,  while  it  used  to  bring  only 
half  this,  and  something  ought  to  be  done  to  make  money  more  plenti- 
ful, so  that  we  can  get  more."  Under  these  circumstances,  how  are  you 
going  to  effect  a  repeal  of  the  present  law  ?  There  are  four  hundred 
millions  of  silver  dollars  in  the  Treasury,  and  against  that  nearly  as 
large  an  amount  of  silver  certificates  and  Treasury  notes  have  been  is- 


286  The  Monetary  Problem. 

sued.  The  former  represent  silver  dollars,  the  Treasury  notes  represent 
coin,  and  it  is  optional  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  whether  they 
shall  be  paid  in  gold  or  silver.  It  is  not  true  that  back  of  every  dollar 
note  there  is  a  dollar  in  silver. 

I  do  not  think  that  free  coinage  means  flooding  the  country  with 
silver.  We  do  not  buy  silver  with  gold,  but  exchange  silver  dollars 
for  silver  bullion.  The  coins  issued  for  the  silver  are  worth  no  more 
than  the  bullion  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  The  silver  dollar  would 
fall  to  the  bullion  value  when  gold  is  at  a  premium.  So  no  one  would 
bring  silver  from  other  countries,  because  the  coin  would  be  worth  no 
more  than  the  bullion.  But  those  who  argue  in  this  way  do  not  want 
the  Government  to  remain  on  a  gold  basis.  They  are  hard  up,  and 
something  must  be  done  for  their  relief.  It  is  well  enough  for  the 
New  York  banker  to  note  that  money  is  plentiful  in  New  York  ;  but 
in  the  South  and  West  money  is  scarcer  than  ever  before.  Cotton  is  at 
the  lowest  price  it  ever  touched.  When  you  tell  a  planter  that  money 
is  plenty,  he  replies :  "  That  may  be,  but  you  in  New  York  have  got  it 
all."  The  Southerner  says :  "  If  you  will  devise  some  way  for  us  to  ob- 
tain money,  we  do  not  care  for  free  coinage."  A  bill  has  lately  been 
proposed  by  Congressman  Harter  which  may  possibly  satisfy  the  West 
and  South,  and  induce  them  to  consent  to  repeal.  The  proposition  is 
to  repeal  the  law  that  prohibits  (by  a  tax  of  10  per  cent)  the  State 
banks  from  issuing  money.  This  would  permit  banks  in  far-away 
places  to  issue  money  for  use  in  the  neighborhood,  or  let  the  men  in 
those  neighborhoods  that  want  money  issue  it  under  such  restrictions 
as  seem  best.  The  money  thus  issued  would  have  only  a  local  par 
value,  and  would  thus  remain  in  the  vicinity,  where  it  is  wanted. 
This  may  not  seem  a  very  good  thing  to  do,  but  under  the  circum- 
stances it  is  the  best.  We  must  do  something  to  get  rid  of  the  present 
law ;  no  law  that  can  be  passed  would  be  as  bad  as  the  present  law. 

MB.  POTTS,  in  reply:  If  it  pleases  Mr.  Nichols  to  call  a  certain 
variety  of  credit — checks,  drafts,  etc. — private  money,  1  have  no  ob- 
jections. It  makes  no  change  in  the  situation.  I  am  glad  Dr.  Eccles 
so  conclusively  answered  Mr.  Nichols  as  to  the  value  of  gold.  It  is 
not  labor  that  gives  value.  I  can  hardly  understand  how  he  had  the 
hardihood  to  make  such  a  statement.  Mr.  Nichols  suggests  issuing 
paper  calling  for  a  dollar's  worth  of  silver  instead  of  for  a  silver  dollar ; 
that  is,  for  the  Government  to  take  in  storage  a  commodity  for  which 
it  issues  certificates  to  deliver  on  demand  at  market  rate,  and  run  the 
risk  of  being  bankrupted  by  having  all  the  silver  called  for  when  the 
price  is  low,  and  having  certificates  left  over. 

Dr.  Eccles  says  the  gold  notes  issued  during  the  war  kept  at  par. 


The  Monetary  Problem.  287 

But  those  notes  couldn't  go  out  of  the  country,  being  in  demand  for 
paying  duties ;  and  couldn't  depreciate  in  value,  because  only  a  very 
limited  number  were  issued. 

Colonel  Cowperthwait  tried  to  show  that  changes  in  prices  do  not  fol- 
low changes  in  the  volume  of  currency.  That  prices  do  not  accurately 
and  quickly  follow  is  true ;  but  in  the  long  run  they  do,  as  all  history 
shows.  And  history  also  shows  that  these  changes  in  prices  are  irregu- 
lar and  do  not  affect  all  commodities  alike,  and  that  makes  the  trouble. 
If  they  were  regular  and  affected  all  alike,  no  harm  would  be  done. 

It  is  undoubtedly  the  case  that  money  is  scarce  in  the  West  and 
South,  and  I  doubt  if  we  can  make  it  otherwise  under  present  circum- 
stances, unless  we  can  make  money  that  will  not  pass  as  easily  outside 
the  locality  in  which  it  is  issued.  If  it  will  pass  in  New  York,  it  will 
drift  this  way.  We  don't  look  at  our  bank  notes  to  see  where  they 
come  from,  and  they  will  not  stay  in  the  West  and  South.  We  need 
some  style  of  paper  money,  issued  by  local  banks,  that  will  be  known 
and  will  pass  there  and  not  elsewhere. 

I  think  if  Colonel  Cowperthwait  will  read  the  law  regarding  the  pur- 
chase of  silver  he  will  find  that  the  silver  certificate  calls  for  a  silver 
dollar,  and  the  silver  dollar  calls  for  a  gold  dollar.  We  do  agree  to 
pay  the  value  of  the  gold  dollar  for  the  silver  bullion. 


THE 
IMMIGRATION  PROBLEM 


BY 

Z.  SIDNEY  SAMPSON 

AUTHOR  OP  PRIMITIVE  MAN,  THE   EVOLUTION  OF  Ml  SIC,   ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Richmond  Mayo-Smith's  Emigration  and  Immigration ;  BromwelPs 
Histor j  of  Immigration  into  the  United  States ;  Dilke's  Problems  of 
the  Greater  Britain ;  Seward's  Chinese  Immigration  in  its  Social  and 
Economical  Aspects ;  Williams's  Chinese  Immigration,  in  Journal  of 
American  Social  Science  Association,  1879 ;  Rounds's  Immigration 
and  Crime,  in  Journal  of  Social  Science,  1889 ;  White's  Invasion  of 
Paii/per  Foreigners,  in  Nineteenth  Century,  March,  1888 ;  Schuyler's 
Italian  Immigration,  in  Political  Science  Quarterly,  September,  1889 ; 
Mayo-Smith's  Theory  of  Immigration,  in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Eco- 
nomics, January,  1891 ;  Walker's  Immigration,  in  Forum,  August,  1891. 


THE  IMMIGRATION  PROBLEM. 

BY  Z.  SIDNEY  SAMPSON. 

THE  immigration  problem  becomes  increasingly  complex 
from  year  to  year.  Especially  during  the  last  two  decades 
its  various  phases  have  been  forced  upon  the  serious  atten- 
tion of  the  country  by  reason  of  the  essentially  undesirable 
character  of  a  large  percentage  of  those  who  seek  not  only 
the  advantages  of  improved  industrial  conditions,  but  ad- 
mission to  the  highest  privileges  which  any  government  can 
bestow — those  of  citizenship  and  suifrage.  It  has  become  a 
pressing  and  anxious  question  whether  American  institu- 
tions, with  all  their  flexibility  and  their  facility  of  applica- 
tion to  new  social  conditions,  will  continue  to  endure  the 
strain  put  upon  them  by  the  rapid  and  ceaseless  introduc- 
tion of  foreign  elements,  unused,  and  wholly  unused  in  great 
measure,  to  a  system  of  government  radically  differing  from 
those  under  which  they  have  been  educated.  Can  these 
diverse  elements  be  brought  to  work  in  harmony  with  the 
American  idea  ?  The  centuries  of  subjection  to  absolutism, 
or  even  despotism,  to  which  the  ancestors  of  many  of  the 
immigrant  classes  have  been  accustomed,  has  formed  a  type 
of  political  character  which  can  not,  except  after  long  train- 
ing, be  brought  into  an  understanding  of  and  a  sympathy 
with  republican  principles. 

An  examination  of  all  the  objections  which  have  been 
made  to  unrestricted  immigration  will  disclose  that  this  is 
by  far  the  most  important  aspect  of  the  question,  and  much 
more  so  than  questions  of  industrial  competition.  If  the 
republic  will  not  ultimately  endure  harm,  industrial  ques- 
tions will  slowly  but  surely  right  themselves ;  if  otherwise, 
none  even  of  the  wisest  can  foresee  the  outcome. 

Mere  ignorance  of  our  institutions  is  not,  therefore,  the 
most  important  circumstance  of  the  case.  It  is  a  question 
of  the  possibility  of  absorbing  into  a  common  American 
nationality  these  diverse  elements.  Ignorance  of  our  sys- 
tem of  government  may,  and  certainly  does,  in  many  cases, 
coexist  with  a  disposition  fully  to  accept  that  system  and 
yield  it  a  ready  obedience.  The  'question  here  suggested 


292  The  Immigration  Problem. 

has  application  mostly  to  the  character  of  much  of  the  for- 
eign populations  which  we  have  received  since  the  civil  war. 
The  Teutonic  and  Celtic  peoples  unite  with  us  readily,  but 
whether  the  Hungarian,  Italian,  and  Bohemian  peoples  are 
capable  of  assimilation  is  a  problem  yet  to  be  determined, 
upon  the  solution  of  which  the  future  of  the  country  largely 
depends. 

It  is  not  the  ignorance  particularly  of  the  American  gov- 
ernmental systems  which  confronts  us,  but  the  absolute 
and  dense  general  ignorance  of  the  lowest  classes  of  Euro- 
pean immigrants.  In  fact,  many  well-educated  Ameri- 
cans might  be  at  a  loss,  if  suddenly  asked,  to  give  a  clear 
idea  of  the  constitution  and  policy  of  foreign  governments, 
and,  on  close  examination,  they  might  even  fail  to  give  an 
entirely  satisfactory  account  of  the  history  of  their  own 
institutions,  or  the  existing  federal  system,  or  the  adjust- 
ment of  political  rights  as  between  national  and  State  juris- 
dictions. 

Our  discussion  of  the  subject  must  not  be  obscured  by 
incorrect  views  as  to  the  position  and  authority  of  the  state 
in  relation  to  movements  of  both  emigration  and  immi- 
gration. There  prevails,  among  no  inconsiderable  num- 
ber, what  may  be  called  an  historical-ethical  sentimental- 
ism  on  this  question.  It  claims  that  any  attempt  at  state 
control  and  interference  in  these  matters  is  not  only  unwise, 
but  unjust ;  that  freedom  of  exit  or  entrance  into  or  from  a 
nation  is  a  personal  and  individual  natural  right,  coequal 
with  the  natural  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,  and  superior  to  any  state  regulation.  This  idea, 
however,  is  born  of  modern  times,  and  has  evolved  with  the 
enormous  expansion  of  facilities  of  international  communi- 
cation by  railroad,  telegraph,  interchange  of  thought  upon 
all  topics  between  all  cultured  nations,  and  the  silent  growth 
of  the  cognate  idea  of  a  possible  federation  of  all  states, 
and,  in  the  distant  future,  a  universal  commonwealth  rest- 
ing upon  the  brotherhood  of  man.  But  it  was  a  right 
everywhere  denied  in  mediaeval  times,  not  recognized  by  any 
modern  state,  and  it  is  based  upon  an  insufficient  compre- 
hension of  the  idea  of  the  state.  The  state,  as  a  corpo- 
rate political  unity,  under  whatever  form  it  may  exist — re- 
publican, monarchic,  or  autocratic — exists  not  only  for  im- 
mediate administrative  purposes,  but  also  in  and  for  the 
obtaining  for  its  citizens  the  highest  attainable  political, 
economic,  and  social  well-being;  and  this  it  has  an  un- 


The  Immigration  Problem.  293 

doubted  right  to  secure,  through  any  such  legislative  and 
executive  action  as  it  may  from  time  to  time  judge  expe- 
dient. It  possesses  the  same  unquestionable  right  to  de- 
termine who  shall  be  admitted  within  its  boundaries,  and 
to  the  privileges  of  citizenship,  and  to  the  benefit  and  pro- 
tection of  its  laws,  as  the  family,  the  social  unit,  has  to  de- 
cide who  shall  be  entitled  to  its  companionship  and  hospi- 
tality. The  state,  in  other  words,  has  a  right  to  self -pro- 
tection and  self -development. 

Says  Dr.  Lieber,  in  Civil  Liberty  and  Self-Government : 
"  The  right  of  locomotion,  or  of  free  egress  and  ingress,  as 
well  as  free  motion  within  the  country,  is  another  important 
and  individual  right  and  element  of  liberty.  It  is  a  precious 
right  of  every  one  to  seek  that  spot  on  earth  where  he  can 
best  pursue  the  ends  of  life,  physical  and  mental,  religious, 
political,  and  cultural." 

Yes,  in  subordination  to  the  exigencies  or  well-being  of 
the  state,  not  otherwise.  Whether  native  to  the  country  or 
accepting  the  benefit  of  its  naturalization  laws,  there  arises 
the  relation  of  implied  contract  between  state  and  citizen 
that  the  latter  shall  not  assert  individual  freedom  to  the 
detriment  of  public  interest ;  and  if  the  latter  apprehend 
injury  from  movements  either  of  emigration  or  immigration, 
restrictive  measures  are  proper.  This  is  manifestly  true  of 
emigration,  which  might  take  place  to  such  an  extent  as 
would  seriously  weaken  the  military  resources  of  a  nation ; 
and  Germany,  of  all  the  nations  from  which  our  immigra- 
tion is  drawn,  has  had  reason  to  apprehend  danger  from 
this  source.  Evasion  of  military  duty  has  been  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  inducing  German  emigration.  But  would  not 
the  same  principle  hold  good  if  the  social  and  industrial 
welfare  of  the  state  were  threatened  or  its  development 
arrested  or  paralyzed  by  the  expatriation  of  a  large  percent- 
age of  its  capitalist  or  working  classes  ?  That  the  question 
has  not  arisen,  probably  never  will  arise,  in  this  country, 
does  not  prove  that  the  state  may  not  in  such  emergency 
forbid  such  wholesale  deportation,  and  thus  revert,  partially 
at  least,  to  the  mediaeval  idea  of  the  duty  of  the  citizen  to 
the  state. 

I  have  called  this  feeling  an  historical  sentiment.  Amer- 
ica has  been  regarded  as  the  "  asylum  of  the  oppressed," 
"  the  refuge  of  the  nations."  Such  it  was,  in  its  earlier 
history,  when  the  pressure  of  odious  and  tyrannical  govern- 
ments compelled  a  resort  to  flight,  though  by  no  means  to 


294  The  Immigration  Problem. 

the  extent  generally  supposed.  But  this  motive  has  not 
operated  to  any  considerable  extent  during  the  present  cent- 
ury, taking  into  account  the  entire  bulk  of  our  immigra- 
tion. The  motive  has  been  quite  wholly  individual — the 
betterment  of  social  conditions,  increase  of  wages,  larger 
opportunity  for  work.  If  this  motive  were  allowed  to  oper- 
ate of  itself,  and  if  immigration  were  not  stimulated  by 
factitious  means,  we  should  not  have  so  much  reason  to 
complain.  The  well-known  fact  is,  however,  that  steamship 
companies  (for  purposes  of  their  own  gain  and  without  the 
slightest  regard  to  the  quality  and  character  of  those  they 
bring,  and  through  agents  abroad,  of  whom  it  is  reported 
the  Inman  line  alone  has  3,500)  foment  this  movement  to 
an  abnormal  extent,  and  are  largely  responsible  for  flooding 
this  country  with  the  most  ignorant  and  undesirable  of  the 
masses  of  Europe. 

We  discover  here,  therefore,  a  sound  political  principle 
which  rightly  controls  all  state  action  upon  the  immediate 
question  before  us.  The  state  may  exclude  dangerous, 
ignorant,  criminal,  and  vicious  persons  from  its  borders. 
It  may  go  farther — it  may  justly  exclude  entire  classes 
whose  presence  would  be  fatal  to  its  homogeneity  as  a  na- 
tion, which  would  introduce  elements  impossible  of  amal- 
gamation with  its  people,  and  thereby,  possibly,  subversive 
of  its  political  institutions,  whether  such  fears  be  well 
grounded  or  not.  The  state  is  not  omniscient,  and  it  may 
make  blunders  in  legislation.  In  regard  to  any  future 
effects  of  unrestricted  immigration,  it  can  act  only  upon 
probabilities,  precisely  as  the  individual  judges  as  to  future 
transactions  in  his  business. 

The  right  being  granted,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  state 
may  deem  best  to  exercise  it ;  but  the  time  may  come  when 
restriction  may  be  put  in  force.  With  a  change  of  con- 
ditions the  policy  of  government  may  change.  The  his- 
tory of  immigration  into  the  United  States  is  extremely  sug- 
gestive on  this  point.  Prior  to  1880  the  doctrine  of  full  and 
unqualified  freedom  of  migration  to  America  had  been  not 
only  uniformly  sustained  here,  but  we  had  insisted  that  for- 
eign governments  should  recognize  in  favor  of  this  country 
the  right  of  their  own  citizens  to  expatriate  themselves — a 
right  which  for  centuries  had  been  steadily  denied  by  them. 
So  far  was  this  insistence  carried  that,  with  limited  restric- 
tions in  some  countries,  the  right  of  expatriation  has  been 
accorded  by  treaty  by  all  European  nations  from  which  the 


The  Immigration  Problem.  295 

bulk  of  our  immigration  is  drawn.  America  has  had  use 
for  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water.  The  intelligent 
class  of  native  Americans,  partly  by  force  of  immigration 
itself,  which  had  been  mostly  recruited  from  the  lower 
classes  abroad,  and  partly  by  the  law  which  draws  the  better 
educated  into  the  more  responsible  positions,  had  with- 
drawn largely  from  the  sphere  of  unskilled  labor,  and  the 
immense  expansion  of  the  country  westward,  necessitating 
extensive  railroad  and  other  great  constructive  enterprises, 
the  building  of  cities,  the  opening  of  mines,  and  great  agri- 
cultural interests,  had  given  scope  and  verge  enough  for  all. 
As  late  as  1868  Congress  declared  by  resolution  that  "  any 
declaration,  instruction,  opinion,  order,  or  decision  of  any 
officer  of  the  United  States  which  denies,  restricts,  obstructs, 
or  questions  the  right  of  expatriation  is  declared  inconsistent 
with  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  republic  " ;  and  in 
a  treaty  made  in  the  same  year  with  China  it  was  declared 
that  "  the  United  States  of  America  and  the  Emperor  of 
China  cordially  recognize  the  inherent  and  inalienable  right 
of  man  to  change  his  home  and  allegiance." 

Within  twenty  years  from  that  date  the  United  States 
turned  its  back  squarely  upon  these  principles.  During 
this  period  the  Chinese  question  came  rapidly  to  the  front. 
Chinese  cheap  labor,  it  was  alleged,  was  undermining  fatally 
the  interests  of  the  working  classes  on  the  Pacific  coast.  A 
labor  invasion  was  threatened.  The  Chinaman  worked  will- 
ingly for  low  wages,  made  out  to  live  comfortably,  after  his 
fashion,  on  these,  and  to  lay  up  something  besides.  Through 
agitation  of  the  question  the  matter  was  brought  into  Con- 
gress, after  various  exclusion  acts  of  the  California  Legisla- 
ture had  been  declared  by  the  Federal  courts  unconstitu- 
tional. Commissioners  were  appointed,  the  subject  was 
investigated,  and  the  outcome  of  the  inquiry  was  the  act  of 
Congress  of  1888,  which  provided  that  "  it  shall  be  unlawful 
for  any  Chinese  laborer  who  shall  at  any  time  heretofore 
have  been,  or  who  may  now  or  hereafter  be,  a  resident  within 
the  United  States,  and  who  shall  have  departed,  or  shall 
depart,  therefrom,  and  shall  not  have  returned  before  the 
passage  of  this  act,  to  return  to,  or  remain  in,  the  United 
States."  Prior  to  this,  pursuant  to  treaty  stipulations,  the 
United  States  had  suspended  the  right  of  the  Chinese  laborer 
to  enter  the  country  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  which  will 
probably  be  still  further  extended. 

What  now  are  we  to  say  as  to  tliis  apparently  contradict- 
20 


296  The  Immigration  Problem. 

ory  action  of  the  Government  ?  This  only,  in  view  of  the 
principle  we  have  insisted  upon  :  that  it  was  suddenly  con- 
fronted with  a  new  problem,  and  was  compelled,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  self-preservation,  or  supposed  necessity  for  self-preser- 
vation, to  abandon  the  doctrinaire  principle  of  "  America 
for  everybody,"  and  insist  upon  the  exclusion  of  an  element 
which  some  of  the  most  able  of  the  anti-exclusionists  them- 
selves admitted  to  be  hostile  to  the  highest  well-being  of  the 
state — an  element  incapable  of  assimilation — incapable,  if 
coming,  as  they  threatened  to  come,  in  great  numbers,  of 
adjusting  themselves  to  those  governmental  ideas  and  politi- 
cal principles  which  have  been  here  laboriously  wrought 
out  and  established.  It  is  argued  that  the  whole  business 
bears  the  ear-marks  of  demagogism,  that  it  was  a  senseless 
outburst  of  ignorant  labor  agitators.  I  do  not  believe  this 
to  have  been  so,  as  a  rule.  It  makes  no  difference  whether 
it  was  or  not,  in  view  of  what  we  are  asking  here,  viz. — did 
unrestricted  Chinese  immigration  threaten  danger  ultimately 
to  the  state  ?  I  believe  it  did.  The  state,  as  we  have  said, 
must  act,  as  to  possible  future  emergencies,  upon  probabili- 
ties. This  apprehended  danger  was  not  chimerical.  In  an 
able  paper  recently  contributed  to  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
Mr.  Arnold  White,  discussing  the  baleful  effects  upon  na- 
tive English  labor  of  the  influx  of  German  and  Eussian 
Jews  into  London,  and  the  necessity  of  governmental  in- 
terference, asserts :  "  Were  a  million  Chinese,  during  next 
month,  to  arrive  equipped  with  no  skill,  knowledge,  or  fit- 
ness other  than  mere  physical  fitness  to  engage  in  mechan- 
ical task  work,  the  evil  would  exist  in  a  form  sufficiently 
acute  to  engage  the  earnest  attention  of  Parliament  and  the 
country  " — a  wholly  incidental  affirmation  of  the  justness  of 
the  American  position. 

To  return :  I  have  referred  to  the  Chinese  question  as  an 
apt  illustration  of  the  abiding  right  of  the  state  to  self- 
preservation — to  self -protection — not  to  be  confounded  with 
the  protective  system,  as  illustrated  in  the  tariff.  The  im- 
migration question  is  a  question  of  fact,  not  of  abstract 
right.  It  is  the  question  what  is  for  the  greatest  good  of 
the  greatest  number.  No  state  can  act  upon  any  other 
principle.  A  system  of  legislation  is  not  a  system  of  phi- 
losophy or  logic ;  and,  as  to  that,  all  the  philosophies  and 
logics  are  at  loggerheads.  The  particular  measures  of  legis- 
lation must  have  constant  reference  to  time  and  place,  and 
are  thus  relative  and  subject  to  revision.  Such  is  profess- 


The  Immigration  Problem.  297 

edly  the  theory  of  English  legislation,  and,  when  put  to  the 
stress,  we  have  seen  that  in  our  own  case  our  famous  doc- 
trine of  absolute  rights  in  the  individual  must  yield  to  the 
necessity  of  unforeseen  situations. 

Before  proceeding  to  a  consideration  of  special  objections 
to  certain  classes  of  immigrants,  and  special  measures  which 
have  been  adopted  to  obviate  them,  a  few  statistics  will  be 
instructive,  which  I  have  taken  mostly  from  Prof.  Richmond 
Mayo-Smith's  valuable  and  comprehensive  treatise  on  Emi- 
gration and  Immigration. 

We  have  no  statistics  of  immigration  prior  to  1820.  Vari- 
ous computations  have  been  made  of  the  then  existing  pro- 
portion of  native  and  foreign-born  population,  but  the  con- 
clusions are  not  material  to  the  present  state  of  the  question. 
Immigration  on  a  large  scale  commenced  with  the  date  of 
the  Irish  famine — 1846.  Since  1820  we  have  received  more 
than  fifteen  million  immigrants,  distributed  as  follows : 
3,387,000  from  Ireland ;  1,529,000  from  England  and  Wales ; 
313,000  from  Scotland ;  4,359,000  from  Germany ;  857,000 
from  Norway  and  Sweden ;  127,600  from  Denmark ;  357,000 
from  France ;  160,200  from  Switzerland ;  321,000  from  Italy 
— this  up  to  1890.  Of  late  years  the  German  contingent 
has  exceeded  the  Irish.  Over  700,000  people  left  Europe 
in  the  years  1887  and  1888  to  locate  elsewhere,  the  great 
majority  belonging  to  the  class  of  permanent  emigrants 
who  leave  with  no  expectation  of  returning. 

A  close  analysis  shows  that  Austria-Hungary  in  1888 
contributed  82,400.  From  this  source  we  receive  our  Slavic- 
Bohemian  element.  To  within  a  recent  period  the  Jewish 
immigration  came  to  us  largely  from  Poland.  The  edict  of 
expulsion  now  in  process  of  enforcement  in  Russia  is  bring- 
ing to  us  7,500  Russian  Jews  per  month.  So  hardly  has 
this  pressed  upon  the  Hebrew  charities  of  New  York  that 
they  have  been  compelled  to  ask  assistance  from  the  public 
at  large ;  and  the  effect  of  this  particular  class  of  immigra- 
tion upon  economic  conditions  is  arousing  a  widespread  and 
serious  interest  among  economists  and  the  working  masses. 

What  is  to  be  the  outcome  of  this  movement  of  the  na- 
tions upon  American  political  and  industrial  life  is  a  ques- 
tion which  confronts  us  with  a  problem  never  before  pre- 
sented in  the  world's  history.  It  involves  so  many  and 
varied  and  perplexing  facts  and  possibilities  that  I  doubt 
whether  the  most  expert  student-  of  sociologic  questions 
would  venture  a  prophecy ;  for  it  is  quite  probable  that  the 


298  The  Immigration  Problem. 

movement  has  not  yet  approached  its  culmination,  and 
whatever  forecasts  we  might  venture  upon  to-day  might  be 
vitiated  by  the  experience  and  results  of  the  next  one  or 
two  decades. 

The  most  that  can  be  done  is  to  study  the  question  in  the 
light  of  the  past,  expose  the  elements  which  have  proved 
unfavorable,  and  direct  governmental  and  individual  action 
toward  the  most  available  remedies. 

The  objections  which  have  been  urged  against  unrestricted 
immigration  are  of  four  kinds :  1.  The  moral.  2.  The  eco- 
nomic. 3.  The  ethnic.  4.  The  political.  These,  of  course, 
are  closely  related,  and  the  discussion  of  any  one  raises  is- 
sues common  to  all,  but  the  distinctions  are  convenient  for 
discussion. 

What  I  have  called  the  moral  objection  is  that  which  is 
directed  against  the  deportation  to  America  of  the  vicious 
and  criminal  classes.  But  who,  you  will  ask,  are  to  decide 
as  to  viciousness  ?  Viciousness  is  a  moral  quality,  the  exist- 
ence of  which  in  any  particular  case  is  impossible  of  deter- 
mination, especially  where  the  social  standing  of  the  indi- 
vidual appears  to  guarantee  his  virtue.  The  worst  vices  are 
not  the  vices  of  the  masses.  Street  brawls  and  drunkenness 
and  disorderly  conduct  do  not  approach  in  degree  of  inten- 
tional vice,  or  in  danger  to  the  social  order,  the  wrecking  of 
banks  and  trust  companies,  and  the  widespread  demoraliza- 
tion of  fierce  financial  competition  and  reckless  speculation. 
With  the  criminal  classes — those  of  the  vicious  classes  who 
have  been  branded  as  criminal  by  the  judgment  of  courts — 
the  case  is  different.  Something  may  be  done  toward  their 
exclusion,  as  their  guilt  is  a  matter  of  record,  but  their  detec- 
tion is  a  matter  of  great  difficulty.  The  London  Times  of 
January  31,  1889,  says :  "  That  the  Prisoners'  Aid  Society 
assists  convicts  to  emigrate  everybody  knows,  and  probably 
the  United  States  receives  its  full  quota  of  the  persons  so 
aided." 

By  act  of  Congress  of  1882  it  is  provided  "  that  all  for- 
eign convicts,  except  those  convicted  of  political  offenses, 
shall  be  sent  back  to  the  nations  to  which  they  belong,  the 
expense  to  be  borne  by  the  owners  of  the  vessels  in  which 
they  came."  With  all  possible  exercise  of  care,  doubtless 
many  of  the  criminal  classes  succeed  in  landing,  and  the 
evil  which,  from  this  particular  source,  is  probably  not  very 
large,  can  only  be  mitigated. 

Immensely  the  more  important  question  is  as  to  the  effect 


The  Immigration  Problem.  299 

upon  public  morals  of  low-class  immigration.  Here  we 
are  assisted  by  careful  and  exact  records,  so  far  as  these 
are  obtainable  from  the  courts.  In  Massachusetts  in  1885, 
while  27  per  cent  of  the  total  population  were  foreign-born, 
40-6  per  cent  of  the  prisoners  and  nearly  39  per  cent  of 
the  convicts  were  foreign-born.  Of  the  whole  number  of 
prisoners,  17  per  cent  had  both  parents  native-born,  and 
60-25  per  cent  had  both  parents-foreign  born.  Of  the  con- 
victs, 19 -7  per  cent  had  both  parents  native-born,  and  51 
per  cent  had  both  foreign-born.  These  statistics  are  not 
encouraging  to  the  citizen  who  believes  that  the  vitality 
of  republican  institutions  rests  upon  individual  character. 
Education  may  accomplish  much,  give  it  time  to  work.  The 
lowest  classes  may,  in  the  course  of  a  generation,  be  mate- 
rially elevated  and  prepared  for  the  duties  of  citizenship, 
but  this  ceaseless  influx  of  ignorance  and  illiteracy  neu- 
tralizes the  most  active  educational  work  and  enterprise, 
because  a  vast  proportion  of  immigrants  come  here  simply 
and  avowedly  for  money,  utterly  oblivious  of  educational 
advantages ;  in  fact,  caring  for  them  not  at  all.  The  total 
number  of  illiterates  in  Massachusetts  in  1885  was  122,000 ; 
of  these,  but  13,900  were  native-born  and  108,300  foreign- 
born.  There  were  18,200  of  the  latter  who  could  read  and 
write  French,  6,500  German,  900  Italian,  850  Portuguese, 
3,150  Swedish,  none  of  whom  could  read  and  write  Eng- 
lish. This  is  certainly  a  deplorable  state  of  facts.  If  these 
statistics  (and  doubtless  the  statistics  of  other  States,  at 
least  of  many  others  in  the  North,  would  offer  the  same  ex- 
hibit)— if  these  statistics,  I  say,  were  the  last  statement  or 
conclusion  we  had  to  suggest  or  present  upon  the  question 
of  the  possibility  of  preserving  an  essential  national  unity, 
the  case  would  appear  hopeless ;  but  we  shall  revert  to  this 
point  hereafter. 

The  second  objection  is  the  economic.  This  embraces, 
broadly,  two  subjects:  First,  the  immigration  of  paupers 
and  imbeciles  ;  Second,  the  effect  of  immigrant  cheap  labor 
upon  the  interests  of  American  workmen.  That  there  has 
existed  for  some  years  past  a  regulated  and  systematic  effort 
on  the  part  of  certain  European  nations  to  deport  their 
pauper  class  to  America  and  elsewhere  is  now  an  ascertained 
fact.  This  is  known  generally  as  "  assisted  emigration." 
European  communities  suffering  from  overstocked  popula- 
tion, from  the  burden  of  poor  rates,  and  severe  economic 
conditions  resulting  in  a  struggle  merely  for  existence 


300  The  Immigration  Problem. 

among  a  large  percentage  of  the  working  classes,  have  re- 
sorted to  assisted  emigration  as  a  partial  relief,  careless  of 
the  effects  of  this  upon  the  social  well-being  and  advance- 
ment of  the  corresponding  classes  in  the  nation  to  which 
they  are  expatriated.  As  far  back  as  1849  poor-law  guardi- 
ans in  Ireland  were  empowered  to  borrow  money  for  this 
purpose.  By  the  year  1855  one  thousand  Swiss  emigrants 
out  of  two  thousand  had  received  aid  from  the  Swiss 
Government  and  benevolent  societies  for  the  same  object. 
The  evil  increased  to  such  proportions  that  the  United 
States  were  compelled  to  protest.  The  situation  is  so  ad- 
mirably summed  up  by  Secretary  Bayard  in  an  answer  to 
the  British  Minister,  who  had  requested  to  know  whether 
the  United  States  Government  would  object  to  receiving 
immigrants  forwarded  by  the  Local  Government  Board  at 
Dublin,  provided  such  immigrants  had  friends  in  this  coun- 
try who  would  receive  and  assist  them,  that  I  quote  his 
words :  "  The  mere  fact  of  poverty,"  says  the  Secretary, 
"  has  never  been  regarded  as  an  objection  to  the  immigrant, 
and  a  large  part  of  those  who  have  come  to  our  shores  have 
been  persons  who  relied  for  their  support  solely  upon  the 
exercise  of  thrift  and  manual  industry.  But  persons  whose 
only  escape  from  becoming  and  remaining  a  charge  upon 
the  community  is  the  expected  but  entirely  contingent 
voluntary  help  and  support  of  friends,  are  not  a  desirable 
accession  to  our  population,  and  their  exportation  hither  by 
a  foreign  government,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  burden  of 
their  support,  could  scarcely  be  regarded  as  a  friendly  act,  or 
in  harmony  with  existing  law." 

Under  the  second  branch  of  this  objection  we  have  to 
consider  the  effect  upon  American  industries  of  the  cheap 
immigrant  labor  of  the  most  overworked,  underfed,  and 
wretchedly  paid  working  classes  of  Europe.  This  question 
has  only  of  late  years  come  prominently  to  the  front.  It 
is  the  "  Chinese  cheap  labor "  question  over  again  in 
another  form.  The  gradual  improvement  of  social  condi- 
tions among  the  American  working  classes  during  the  last 
half -century,  the  increasing  self-respect  of  the  American 
laborer,  due  to  education,  political  independence,  and  im- 
proved sanitary  conditions,  has  elevated  him  to  a  relative 
civilization  which  the  nation,  out  of  regard  to  its  future 
well-being,  can  not  afford  that  he  should  lose  by  an  under- 
mining of  his  economic  value  to  the  state  through  cheap- 
labor  competition. 


The  Immigration  Problem.  301 

The  one  security  for  the  state  is  the  existence  of  an  in- 
dustrial class  receiving  adequate  compensation  for  its  labor, 
relieved,  as  far  as  possible,  by  a  fair  wage  system,  from  the 
pressure  of  want,  thus  giving  opportunity  for  the  expansion 
of  individual  ability,  and  fostering  a  just  desire  for  im- 
proved social  conditions.  If  there  has  been  one  circum- 
stance in  American  history  potent  to  strengthen  the  bonds 
between  state  and  citizen,  it  has  been  the  feeling  of  grati- 
tude evoked  by  the  unlimited  opportunities  for  advance- 
ment afforded  by  American  institutions,  unchecked  by 
social  caste  or  imperial  interference.  But  this  advantage 
can  be  hoped  for  only,  as  we  have  said,  on  the  basis  of  the 
financial  prosperity  of  wage-earners.  It  is  certainly  dif- 
ficult to  prognosticate  the  results  of  the  present  increas- 
ingly complex  problem  of  industrial  competition.  The 
sweating  system,  under  which  the  contractor  takes  one  half 
the  entire  profits  which  he  makes  out  of  his  contract  and 
divides  the  balance  among  his  employes,  the  latter  working 
under  sanitary  conditions  in  tenement  houses  which  are  a 
constant  menace  to  the  public  health  and  fertile  breeders 
of  disease  and  immorality,  is  fully  established  among  us. 
In  London  it  is  an  old  affair  and  has  called  for  the  repeated 
interference  of  Parliament  and  the  London  County  Council. 
The  class  subject  to  this  system  are  mostly  low-class  Ger- 
mans and  German  Polish  Jews,  who  subsist  stealthily  upon 
food  which  in  any  reputable  household  would  be  consigned 
to  the  offal  heap.  The  trades  in  which  they  work  are  mostly 
tailoring  and  boot  and  shoe  making.  The  wages  of  sewing- 
women  in  London  have  been  reduced  by  this  unfair  compe- 
tition to  a  shilling  for  fourteen  hours'  work.  A  similar 
effect  is  gradually  being  produced  here.  If  these  incoming 
cheap  workers  manifested  ambition  for  improved  social  or 
sanitary  conditions  it  would  be  an  alleviation  of  the  evil ; 
but  they  are  apparently  satisfied  with  long  hours,  low  wages, 
and  living  in  utter  disregard  of  the  ordinary  decencies  of 
life. 

The  question  has  been  further  complicated  by  the  in- 
creasing tide  of  Italian  immigration ;  but  I  do  not  regard 
the  industrial  system  by  any  means  so  unfavorably  affected 
thereby  as  by  the  competition  in  skilled  labor  forced  upon 
us  by  the  class  we  have  just  considered.  In  considering  this 
phase  of  the  matter  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  positions 
into  which  native  American  labor  has  been  gradually  forced 
by  the  exigencies  of  new  situations.  During  the  first  quar- 


302  The  Immigration  Problem. 

ter  of  the  century,  and  we  may  say  until  the  years  of  the 
Irish  famine  and  consequent  immense  increase  of  arrivals, 
the  American,  at  least  in  the  North,  felt  no  degradation  in 
taking  part  in  manual  labor.  With  the  advent  of  the  Irish 
he  was  displaced  as  an  ordinary  laborer ;  and  brought  thus 
into  competition  with  an  ignorant  Irish  peasantry,  who 
could  underbid  him  constantly  in  wages,  there  was  born  a 
repugnance  to  association  with  him  upon  the  same  class  of 
work  and  on  equal  terms,  and  he  withdrew  into  the  class  of 
skilled  laborers  or  utilized  his  superior  education  in  manu- 
facturing enterprises  and  commercial  pursuits.  The  effects 
of  this  transformation  are  strongly  pictured  by  Prof.  Walker 
in  his  article  on  Immigration  and  Population,  in  the  Forum 
for  August,  1891  :  "  Throughout  the  New  England  and 
Northern  Middle  States,  into  which  the  new-comers  poured, 
the  standard  of  material  living,  of  general  intelligence,  of 
social  decency,  had  been  singularly  high.  Life,  even  at  its 
hardest,  had  always  had  its  luxuries — the  growing  child  had 
been  decently  dressed,  the  house  in  order,  the  gate  hung, 
and  the  shutters  in  place.  Then  came  the  foreigner,  bring- 
ing not  only  a  vastly  lower  standard  of  living,  but  too  often 
an  actual  present  incapacity  even  to  understand  the  refine- 
ments of  life  and  thought  in  the  community.  Our  people 
had  to  look  upon  houses  that  were  mere  shells  for  human 
habitation,  the  gate  unhung,  green  pools  in  the  yard,  babes 
and  young  children  rolling  about  half  naked,  or  worse,  neg- 
lected, dirty,  unkempt." 

Not  only  is  this  so,  but  the  distinctive  features  of  New 
England  communities  have  been  seriously  and  radically  al- 
tered. In  Boston,  in  1885,  only  31  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation were  of  native  birth — i.  e.,  born  in  the  United  States  ; 
in  Lowell,  only  30  per  cent ;  in  Lawrence,  22  per  cent ;  in 
Fall  River,  17  per  cent ;  and  in  the  small  city  of  Holyoke, 
but  16  per  cent.  Many  of  our  factory  towns  and  cities 
are  really  foreign  so  far  as  the  nationality  of  their  in- 
habitants is  concerned.  Many  of  the  large  manufactur- 
ing centers  are  politically  at  their  mercy.  The  extremely 
liberal  educational  facilities  and  institutions  of  the  Eastern 
States — of  Massachusetts  especially — can  not  cope  with  the 
increasing  flood  of  ignorance  and  the  low  degree  of  men- 
tality of  the  average  immigrant.  Especially  is  this  true  of 
the  French  Canadian  element.  The  employment  of  French 
Canadians  for  factory  work  is  comparatively  a  recent  feat- 
ure in  the  industrial  history  of  the  United  States.  They 


The  Immigration  Problem.  303 

work  in  the  summer,  returning  home,  many  of  them,  in  the 
winter.  Their  sole  object  is  the  accumulation  of  a  small 
amount  of  money,  with  which  they  may  purchase  a  small 
farm  in  their  own  country,  and  there  return  to  settle.  They 
possess  no  public  spirit,  care  little  or  nothing  for  education, 
nothing  for  American  political  life  or  institutions.  Their 
standard  of  living  is  low.  The  entire  family,  parents  and 
children,  work  together,  and  the  tendency  of  their  influence 
in  the  Eastern  States  is  still  further  to  depreciate  social  con- 
ditions, and  hinder  the  social  advancement  of  the  mass  of 
the  working  classes. 

What  shall  be  said  generally  of  this  immensely  complex  eco- 
nomic question  ?  That  it  must  be  allowed  to  work  itself  out 
under  the  operation  of  the  natural  sociologic  laws  of  cause 
and  effect ;  by  adjustments  between  employer  and  employed ; 
by  gradual  improvement  in  social  conditions,  aided  by  pri- 
vate philanthropy,  if  necessary ;  by  education ;  by  the  rais- 
ing of  the  standard  of  self-respect  among  newly  arrived 
immigrants ;  by  converging  upon  the  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion the  results  of  the  best  sociologic  study,  and  by  the  per 
sonal  and  direct  influence  of  the  better-educated.  This 
problem  can  not  be  solved  by  governmental  interference — it 
never  fails  to  work  greater  confusion.  Legislative  action 
can  not  be  adjusted  to  economic  issues  of  this  class,  variable 
and  fluctuating  as  they  are,  and  will  continue  to  be,  were 
every  congressman  a  professor  of  sociology. 

The  third  objection  to  uncontrolled  immigration  is  based 
upon  ethnic  grounds — that  is  to  say,  it  demands  the  exclu- 
sion of  all  nationalities  which  are  so  diverse  from  our  own 
people  in  racial  characteristics  that  such  diversity  appears 
an  insuperable  barrier  to  racial  amalgamation.  The  case  of 
the  Chinese  we  have  discussed.  While  the  opposition  was 
professedly  organized  upon  industrial  grounds,  there  existed 
behind  and  beyond  these  a  justifiable  apprehension  that  the 
Mongolian  could  not  be  assimilated  so  far  as  to  work  in 
harmony  with  the  social  and  political  features  of  the  coun- 
try. It  is  difficult  to  say  where  the  line  shall  be  drawn — 
what  nations  shall  be  included  and  what  excluded.  The 
question  must  be  answered,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  light  of 
history;  and  from  historical  considerations  it  would  seem 
that  the  Germanic,  or,  if  you  prefer,  Teutonic,  and  Latin 
races  possess  the  characteristics  most  readily  fusible  with 
our  own  nationality — generally  speaking,  the  Indo-European 
stock.  The  problem  has  never  yet  been  so  sharply  pre- 


304  The  Immigration  Problem. 

sented  to  us  as  in  the  case  of  the  Chinese.  But  there  is  a 
growing  apprehension  that  the  increasing  volume  of  Bo- 
hemian-Hungarian immigration  is  distinctly  unfavorable  to 
American  social  unity.  The  immigration  has  not  yet 
reached  such  proportions  as  to  call  for  action  by  the  state, 
if,  indeed,  such  action  will  ever  be  found  necessary.  This 
phase  of  the  problem  (I  mean  the  exclusion  of  races  other 
than  the  Chinese)  is  a  matter  upon  which  we  can  only 
speculate,  and  upon  which  speculations  will  vary  widely.  In 
this  connection,  however,  the  question  of  ultimate  racial 
mixtures  and  racial  amalgamation  in  this  country  may  be 
considered.  A  mixture  of  races  is  held  by  many  to  be  a 
source  of  national  strength  and  character.  Mixed  races, 
according  to  this  doctrine,  are  the  strongest.  Now,  if  this 
means  that  in  these  United  States  there  may  be,  or  should 
be,  a  complete  fusion  of  nationalities,  which  shall  absorb 
and  submerge  completely  the  peculiar  features  of  all,  result- 
ing in  one  homogeneous  and,  in  evolutionary  phraseology, 
undifferentiated  social  structure,  I  say  that  such  will  never 
be  the  case.  Large  quotas  of  our  present  and  future  popu- 
lation will  always  refuse  to  blend  in  this  manner.  The  col- 
ored race,  which  is  by  no  means  dying  out,  of  course  is  ex- 
cluded. The  millions  of  Hebrews  will  not  amalgamate  with 
us.  The  statistics  of  marriages  do  not  show  any  considera- 
ble tendency  toward  racial  fusion.  In  localities  where  a 
particular  nationality  prevails  largely,  men  prefer  wives  of 
their  own  race.  Out  of  10,000  Irishmen  living  in  New  York 
city,  over  9,400  chose  wives  born  in  Ireland ;  393  had  native- 
born  wives.  The  same  fact  appears  among  the  Germans. 
Intermarriages  among  the  Slavic  and  Italian  races  or  of 
these  with  native  Americans  will  be  so  infrequent  as  never 
to  become  a  factor  in  the  case.  But  while  there  will,  prob- 
ably, never  be  complete  fusion,  this  does  not  preclude  the 
establishment  of  complete  political  unity,  of  a  nationality 
based  upon  the  full  and  willing  acceptance  by  all  of  Ameri- 
can political  institutions,  which  shall  develop  a  patriotic 
sentiment  and  a  strong  co-operative  national  life.  It  may, 
in  fact,  be  questioned  whether  complete  absorption  would 
be  desirable.  Nations  progress  by  the  interaction  of  vary- 
ing social  forces.  You  will  find  complete  homogeneity  only 
in  savage  tribes  or  among  the  most  backward  nations. 
Conflict  of  social  elements,  provided  these  can  be  held  in 
reasonable  political  subordination,  conduces  to  the  highest 
social  type  in  the  long  run.  The  test  of  a  vigorous  nation- 


The  Immigration  Problem.  305 

ality  is  the  readiness  with  which  all  its  elements,  be  they 
ever  so  heterogeneous  in  origin,  will  consolidate  for  defense 
of  the  nation  in  serious  emergencies,  such  as  war  or  threat- 
ened invasion. 

If  no  other  benefit  had  accrued  from  the  recent  sectional 
strife  in  this  country  than  the  demonstration  how  far  for- 
eign elements  had  been  wrought  into  the  national  life,  and 
how  sensitive  these  had  become  on  the  question  of  the  pres- 
ervation of  national  unity,  we  could  have  been  thankful  for 
the  lesson.  It  is  no  longer  any  sort  of  question  whether 
Germans  or  Irish  can  be  brought  into  harmony  with  what  I 
have  called  the  American  idea.  The  civil  war  settled  that. 
It  is  a  question  now  of  the  Italian-Bohemian-Hungarian 
factor.  As  to  the  former,  the  question  and  answer  have 
passed  into  history ;  as  to  the  latter,  we  can  only  leave  it  to 
the  future. 

Fourth,  let  us  consider  the  question  from  the  political 
side.  Does  immigration  threaten  American  political  insti- 
tutions ?  This  is  really  the  test  question.  While  it  is  true 
that  institutions  are  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  insti- 
tutions, yet  it  is  equally  true  that  it  is  only  under  satisfactory 
political  institutions  that  social,  moral,  and  economic  prog- 
ress is  possible.  We  contend  that  the  American  idea  offers 
the  best  vantage  ground  upon  which  these  may  be  evolved. 
So  far  as  the  preservation  of  republican  government  is  con- 
cerned, I  think  the  danger  is  exceedingly  remote.  But  the 
claim  is  that  the  standard  of  political  morals  has  been  ma- 
terially lowered,  especially  in  large  centers  of  population, 
and  that  the  suffrage  has  been  demoralized ;  that  local  par- 
tisan politics  are  corrupted,  that  the  boss  system  is  a  stand- 
ing menace  to  that  free  political  action  which  the  state 
demands  of  its  citizens,  and  that  this  system  nourishes  among 
us  by  taking  advantage  of  the  ignorance  and  illiteracy  of 
the  immigrant  class.  Let  the  fact  be  acknowledged.  What 
I  mostly  wonder  at  is  that  with  this  swarm  of  ignorance 
and  illiteracy  infesting  our  large  cities  we  have  succeeded 
as  well  as  we  have.  It  is  only  in  the  surmounting  of  diffi- 
culties that  progress  is  really  measured,  and  I  consider  it  an 
extraordinary  tribute  to  the  generous  wisdom  and  abundant 
vitality  of  American  institutions  that  our  municipal  govern- 
ments have  succeeded  as  well  as  they  have.  Lapses  from 
political  virtue  are  lamentably  frequent,  but  these  have 
never  yet  failed  to  develop  a  powerful  reaction  in  support  of 
political  honor,  and  not  seldom  have  these  reactions  been 


306  The  Immigration  Problem. 

due  in  large  measure  to  leaders  who  have  been  themselves 
of  the  immigrant  class,  or  but  one  generation  removed, 
The  fact  is  that  not  only  does  the  political  freedom  of  Ameri- 
can life  afford  wide  opportunity  for  fraud  and  peculation, 
but  it  at  the  same  time  gives  free  play  and  still  greater  op- 
portunity for  the  honest  elements  to  mass  their  sentiments 
in  favor  of  honest  government,  and  bring  them  to  bear  at 
once,  and  with  immediate  and  overpowering  effect,  unham- 
pered by  aristocracies  or  bureaucracies. 

As  to  anarchistic  and  ultra-socialistic  views,  we  have  no 
great  reason  to  apprehend  any  widespread  serious  conse- 
quences. The  fact  is  admitted  by  anarchists  themselves 
that  this  country  is  one  of  the  most  unpromising  for  the 
propagation  of  root  and  branch  ideas.  Every  laborer  who 
acquires  a  small  savings-bank  account  is  a  capitalist.  Possi- 
bilities of  accumulating  property  here  completely  nullify 
anarchistic  ideas.  It  is  as  easy  to  overturn  the  pyramids  as 
a  commonwealth  so  thoroughly  broad-based  upon  the  peo- 
ple's will  as  our  own.  The  outbreaks  in  Chicago  and  New 
Orleans  were  wholly  local,  and  indicate  no  unrest  among 
the  masses  in  the  direction  of  dangerous  socialism.  It  is 
the  most  important  safeguard  which  American  institutions 
possess,  that  the  right  of  individual  property,  right  to  pur- 
chase, hold,  and  benefit  therefrom,  unhindered  by  artificial  so- 
cial conditions,  is  guaranteed  to  all,  without  reserve.  Trades- 
unions,  once  regarded  unfavorably  as  opposed  to  capital,  are 
now'  found  to  be  ranged  directly  in  line  with  capital  and 
forming  one  of  its  very  bulwarks.  The  opportunity  for  dis- 
ruption of  American  institutions  by  foreign  radicals  of  the 
immigrant  class  is  of  the  slightest. 

In  view  of  the  complications  of  the  immigration  problem, 
it  is  natural  to  ask,  What  is  the  remedy  ?  The  answer  is, 
that  there  is  no  one  specific  remedy  which  promises  to  cure 
the  difficulty.  There  are  two  courses  which  suggest  them- 
selves— prohibition  and  regulation.  The  former  it  is  im- 
possible to  enforce,  at  least  as  against  Europeans,  and  we 
are  therefore  confined  to  the  latter.  Enlargement  of  exist- 
ing laws,  greater  restrictions  upon  wholesale  immigration 
regardless  of  the  character  of  the  immigrant,  the  full  en- 
forcement of  inspection  laws — these  and  similar  measures 
thoroughly  administered  will  alleviate  the  difficulty.  But 
it  will  readily  be  seen  that  the  problem  must  be  solved  as 
difficulties  arise.  That  there  is  in  existence  among  Ameri- 
cans a  large  and  rapidly  increasing  body  of  opinion  adverse 


The  Immigration  Problem.  307 

to  this  practically  unlimited  flow  of  immigration  is  unde- 
niable, and  that  it  will  make  itself  felt  is  certain. 

Yet  upon  a  review  of  the  entire  present  situation  I  think 
we  may  be  optimists.  Notwithstanding  all  unfavorable  feat- 
ures, there  are  antagonizing  elements  constantly  at  work, 
not  the  less  potent  because  they  work  silently.  We  may 
attach  undue  importance  to  statistics  merely.  We  may  not 
sufficiently  observe  the  influences — in  fact,  the  immigrant 
himself  may  not  be  conscious  of  them — which  year  after 
year  tend  to  adjust  his  habits  of  thought  and  his  political 
views  and  actions  to  his  new  environment.  Freedom  of 
suffrage,  educational  advantages,  improved  industrial  con- 
ditions, the  dignity  of  citizenship,  equal  laws,  protection  of 
property — all  these  nourish  in  him  an  increasing  respect  for 
the  American  system ;  and  we  have  reason  to  believe  that, 
under  proper  legislation,  the  combined  influence  of  all  of 
these  will  in  the  long  run  fully  neutralize  the  distinctly  un- 
favorable results  of  future  immigration. 

NOTE.— In  addition  to  the  collateral  readings  suggested  in  connection  with 
this  lecture,  we  mention  a  recent  valuable  article  in  the  Forum  for  March,  1892, 
by  Senator  Chandler,  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Immigration,  on 
restrictions  upon  immigration.  The  radical  divergence  of  the  various  opinions 
called  forth  in  answer  to  inquiries  as  to  how  far  restriction  should  be  carried 
indiqates  the  unsettled  state  of  opinion  in  the  country  on  this  most  important  of 
all  present  national  questions.  For  those  who  would  examine  more  in  detail 
into  the  question,  which  can  here  be  treated  in  the  merest  outline,  reference  is 
made  to  the  valuable  bibliography  at  the  close  of  Prof.  Mayo-Smith's  work  above 
quoted. 


308  The  Immigration  Problem. 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

CHARLES  B.  SPAHR,  PH.  D. : 

It  would  be  embarrassing  to  talk  on  this  question — since  I  hardly 
know  where  I  stand  myself — if  I  didn't  know  that  agnosticism  is  tol- 
erated here.  There  was  a  time  when  I  did  know  something  about  this 
question — or  thought  I  did — but  that  was  long  ago.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  when  the  restriction  of  Chinese  immigration  was  first  proposed 
most  of  us  felt  it  to  be  in  violation  of  the  teachings  of  Christianity 
and  the  spirit  of  our  American  institutions.  But  I  have  no  doubt  that 
now  four  fifths  of  this  audience  believe  that  Chinese  exclusion  is  right. 
I  am  for  the  protection  of  American  civilization  against  the  Asiatic. 
We  have  here  a  certain  territory,  and  in  it  we  have  a  high  state  of  civ- 
ilization or  a  low  one.  As  in  former  days  we  had  a  class  favoring  the 
introduction  of  slavery  into  new  States  and  Territories,  and  another 
opposing  it,  so  now  we  have  a  class  opposing  the  introduction  of  Chi- 
nese labor  and  the  sweating  system.  When  Thomas  Jefferson  urged 
the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Northwest  Territory  the  land-owners 
were  not  on  his  side.  The  land-owners  of  Indiana  wanted  population 
and  cheap  labor.  The  land-owners  of  the  East  want  cheap  labor,  and 
so  they  favor  unrestricted  immigration.  Because  not  only  the  land- 
owners and  employers,  but  also  the  laboring  men,  make  political  senti- 
ment in  this  country,  there  has  been  a  great  change  in  public  senti- 
ment on  this  question.  Ten  years  ago  Mr.  Beecher  disposed  of  this 
question  in  a  single  sentence.  He  said :  "  An  ox  eats  hay ;  but  the  ox 
does  not  turn  into  hay ;  the  hay  turns  into  ox."  And  so  it  was  thought 
we  could  receive,  without  hurt,  unlimited  immigration  from  every 
country  on  the  globe.  But  we  have  found  one  kind  of  immigrant  that 
can  not  be  turned  into  ox.  The  Chinese  ranks  not  as  hay,  but  as  gar- 
bage, and  if  the  ox  takes  too  much,  the  change  takes  place  in  the 
wrong  way. 

One  class  says  we  ought  to  allow  unrestricted  immigration; 
another  that  foreigners  should  be  prevented  from  voting  until  after  a 
residence  of  fifteen  years.  Against  extreme  positions  like  these  it 
would  be  easy  to  open  discussion.  But  in  reply  to  the  thoroughly  sen- 
sible talk  to  which  we  have  listened  to-night  there  is  nothing  for  me 
to  say.  I  agree  that  the  evils  of  foreign  immigration  and  citizenship 
can  be  greatly  exaggerated.  In  Fall  River,  statistics  show  that  only 
31  per  cent,  of  the  voters  are  native-born ;  but  the  Irish  are  so  Ameri- 


The  Immigration  Problem.  309 

canized  that  they  have  adopted  public  measures  which  1  doubt  if 
this  audience  is  quite  up  to.  By  the  Irish  vote  every  dram-shop 
in  the  city  was  closed  up.  On  the  temperance  question  the  Irish  of 
Fall  River  are  ten  years  ahead  of  the  Americans  of  New  York  and 
Brooklyn. 

The  only  point  on  which  I  absolutely  disagree  with  the  speaker  is  in 
regard  to  the  statistics  of  Massachusetts,  showing  that  a  greater  per- 
centage of  criminals  were  foreign-born  than  of  the  entire  population. 
The  figures  are  correct  but  misleading.  The  Evening  Post,  in  an  edi- 
torial upon  the  disappearance  of  the  native  race,  compares  the  number 
of  marriages  and  deaths  among  the  foreign  and  native  born  and  finds 
an  alarming  excess  of  deaths  over  marriages  among  the  native-born. 
But  as  children  of  foreign-born  parents  are  counted  as  native  Ameri- 
cans, and  as  over  one  half  the  deaths  are  of  children  under  five  years 
of  age,  the  Post's  conclusions  are  manifestly  erroneous.  So,  too,  the 
children  produce  practically  no  criminals.  A  more  careful  examina- 
tion shows  that  of  all  over  eighteen  years  of  age  the  foreign  popula- 
tion produces  a  smaller  percentage  of  criminals  than  the  native-born. 
The  foreigners  are  not  so  immoral  as  they  are  painted.  The  most  for- 
eign town  that  I  ever  was  in  in  America  is  the  only  town  of  its  size 
that  I  know  where  there  is  no  open  house  of  immorality.  The  im- 
morality in  the  foreign  parts  of  New  York  city  is  less  than  in  other 
parts. 

The  rapidity  with  which  foreigners  become  Americanized  is  illus- 
trated by  the  experience  of  a  gentleman  in  Boston.  In  his  philan- 
thropic work  on  the  east  side  he  had  gotten  quite  a  hold  on  the  Italian 
population.  A  small  boy  once  asked  him :  "  Are  you  a  Protestant  \  " 
He  said  "  Yes,"  and  the  boy  seemed  much  disappointed.  But  presently 
he  brightened  up  and  said :  "  You  are  an  American,  ain't  you  1 " 
"  Yes."  "  So  am  I,"  with  satisfaction.  Children  become  American  to 
that  extent  that  they  don't  like  to  have  it  known  that  they  have  for- 
eign parents.  One  little  girl  of  German  parentage,  speaking  of  her 
teacher,  said  :  "  She's  a  lady — she  can't  speak  German  at  all." 

The  Hungarians  are  not  assimilated,  I  know.  The  importation  of 
Hungarians  into  Hocking  Valley  was  an  evil.  But  we  have  the  power 
of  assimilating  immigrants  from  most  European  countries.  Like  the 
speaker,  I  ani  not  in  favor  of  the  more  drastic  measures  to  prevent  im- 
migration. But  I  believe  that  the  steamship  companies  that  decoy 
immigrants  ought  to  have  the  penalty  of  the  law  before  them.  Any 
steamship  company  bringing  over  one  of  the  prohibited  class  should 
not  only  take  him  back  free,  but  pay  back  the  price  of  passage.  They 
are  like  the  old  slave-traders,  bringing  over  men  merely  for  the  sake  of 
money. 


310  The  Immigration  Problem. 

I  do  not  quite  agree  with  the  lecturer  about  the  unwisdom  of  Con- 
gress. The  sociologist  and  scientist  do  have  to  take  the  background 
and  admit  that  progressive  thinking  on  social  questions  comes  from 
the  backwoodsmen.  On  the  temperance  question,  labor  question,  etc., 
they  are  ahead.  Congress  in  the  long  run  does  act  upon  the  ideas  that 
the  hard  knocks  of  experience  have  taught  to  the  men  of  the  country. 
All  of  these  questions  are  really  labor  questions.  The  introduction  of 
a  low  class  of  labor  keeps  production  in  America  at  a  low  level.  It 
may  be  a  temporary  benefit  to  the  land-owner  to  bring  in  slaves,  but 
with  such  cheap  labor  there  is  never  any  inducement  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  improvements  in  methods  and  machinery.  The  immigrants  of 
'53  brought  with  them  an  average  of  three  hundred  dollars  per  family. 
Last  year  the  average  was  seventy-five  dollars.  We  are  not  getting  as 
high  a  type  as  formerly.  This  question  has  got  to  be  settled  in  the 
interest  of  civilization  and  of  the  country,  so  as  to  raise  the  standard 
of  living  among  laborers.  The  position  the  trades-unions  have  taken 
has  been  good.  There  is  a  vast  amount  of  wealth  in  the  country,  and 
the  question  is  not  how  to  make  sixty  billions  or  one  hundred  and 
twenty  billions  more,  but  how  the  next  sixty  billions  can  be  used  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  poor. 

DR.  ROBERT  G-.  ECCLES  : 

This  is  a  problem  somewhat  difficult  for  me  to  discuss,  as  I  came 
here  a  foreigner  myself.  I  have  noticed  that  when  a  street-car  is 
crowded  it  is  the  last  man  who  enters  that  makes  the  most  fuss  when 
his  toes  are  trodden  on,  and  so  it  is  with  the  immigrants.  It  is  not 
the  native  Americans,  but  the  Irish,  who  are  most  bitter  against  the 
Italians  and  the  Chinese.  In  this  problem  we  may  take  either  of  two 
standpoints :  one  is  the  ethical,  which  has  been  lost  sight  of  to-night ; 
the  other  that  of  expediency,  which  is  based  on  pure  selfishness.  It  is 
evident  that  we  in  America  have  to  act  upon  the  ground  of  expe- 
diency ;  but  we  ought  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  ethical.  So  long  as  the 
country  has  room  enough  for  the  population  to  expand  and  grow,  I 
don't  believe  the  introduction  of  any  man  will  harm  it — not  even  if  he 
be  a  Chinaman.  The  country  would  not  be  what  it  is  now  if  it  were  not 
for  Chinese  immigration.  The  Chinese  built  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and 
were  largely  instrumental  in  building  up  the  Pacific  slope,  and  now  it 
is  the  Pacific  slope  which  is  fighting  them.  I  do  not  advocate  Chi- 
nese immigration,  but  from  the  standpoint  of  ethics  we  have  no  right 
to  exclude  immigrants  from  any  nation.  From  the  standpoint  of  ex- 
pediency, on  the  other  hand,  we  have  a  right  to  protect  ourselves  from 
every  nation.  Let  us  put  an  import  duty  on  the  laborer  as  we  do  on 
goods.  If  every  one,  without  regard  to  his  nationality,  has  to  pay  one 


The  Immigration  Problem.  311 

hundred  dollars  tax  when  he  lands,  we  will  get  rid  of  the  helpless  and 
shiftless  and  allow  only  the  worthy  to  come  in. 

Let  us  look  at  a  nation,  as  Herbert  Spencer  does,  as  an  organism — 
an  evolved  being — and  we  shall  see  that  that  being  has  a  system  like 
our  own.  It  has  a  circulatory  system — railroads,  canals,  etc. ;  a  nerv- 
ous system — telegraphs,  telephones,  etc. ;  definite  depots  for  the  pro- 
duction of  things  necessary  for  its  support,  which  correspond  with 
the  vital  portions  of  the  human  organism.  Dangers  to  the  nation  are 
similar  to  those  which  threaten  the  health  of  the  individual.  If  the 
thing  I  take  in  is  on  a  much  lower  plane  of  development  than  my  own 
structure,  and  of  a  type  not  stable — not  fully  alive  but  decaying — the 
danger  is  great.  The  danger  to  health  comes  not  from  individual 
bacteria,  but  from  bacteria  settling  in  certain  localities  in  colonies, 
and  there  breeding  and  increasing.  All  dangerous  diseases  begin  in 
such  colonies  and  spread  through  the  body.  The  analogy  holds  good 
in  the  nation.  The  danger  from  foreigners  comes  when  they  form  a 
nidus,  as  it  were — when  the  Chinese  cluster  together  as  they  do  in  San 
Francisco  and  defy  our  Government  and  civilization,  and  send  out 
thence  a  poisonous  influence,  just  like  the  bacteria  in  our  bodies. 
Such  performances  as  those  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  in  Chicago,  and  of  the 
Irish  in  New  York  on  St.  Patrick's  Day,  are  examples.  We  should  not 
allow  foreigners  to  foster  foreign  ideas  in  this  country.  As  long  as 
they  do  it  we  are  in  danger  from  such  organizations  as  the  Mafia  in 
New  Orleans.  The  concentration  of  foreign  elements  from  one  nation 
in  one  place  and  the  development  there  of  their  national  characteristics 
is  dangerous.  Our  safety  lies  in  letting  the  evil  tendencies  of  different 
nations  check  each  other.  Let  one  evil  kill  another.  Let  the  mean, 
selfish  characteristics  of  the  Irish  clash  with  and  kill  the  mean,  selfish 
characteristics  of  the  Germans,  and  so  forth.  Immigration  free  and 
unrestricted,  save  by  the  imposition  of  the  tax  of  which  I  spoke,  means 
safety  and  improvement  of  the  standard  of  American  people.  "  As- 
sisted "  immigrants  should  be  sent  back  home. 

MR.  ALFRED  J.  WOLFE: 

I  am  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  this  organization  is 
discussing  a  question  upon  which  I  would  like  to  have  the  views  of  the 
speaker.  Some  hold,  with  T.  V.  Powderly,  that  to  restrict  immigra- 
tion for  ten  years  by  means  of  a  tax  would  produce  amelioration  in 
the  condition  of  the  laborer,  and  a  rise  of  wages.  Others  oppose  this 
view.  I  should  like  to  be  enlightened. 


21 


312  The  Immigration  Problem. 

DR.  LEWIS  G.  JANES  : 

A  word  in  regard  to  certain  classes  of  foreign-born  laborers  in  our 
own  community  may  be  of  interest.  The  Chinese  question  in  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  is  not  sufficiently  serious  for  governmental  inter- 
ference, though  in  California  it  may  be.  The  Chinese  here  are  usually 
good  citizens.  They  are  industrious,  they  charge  a  fair  price  for  their 
work,  and  do  good  work  which  meets  a  demand.  The  Italians  are  ob- 
jected to  because  they  work  for  low  wages ;  but  as  citizens  they  are 
not  usually  objectionable.  They  are  frugal  and  do  not  come  on  the 
community  for  support.  A  gentleman  in  the  employ  of  the  charity 
organization  tells  me  that  no  Italians  apply  to  them  for  help,  and  but 
few  colored  people.  The  applicants  are  mostly  Irish.  I  agree  with 
the  lecturer  that  in  one  or  two  generations  nearly  all  who  come  to  this 
country  are  transformed  into  good  American  citizens. 

MR.  SAMPSON,  in  closing :  I  am  obliged  to  Mr.  Spahr  for  supplement- 
ing the  lecture  in  the  matter  of  criminal  statistics,  but  do  not  remem- 
ber that  I  have  anywhere  spoken  disparagingly  of  congressional  action. 

We  may  easily  be  mistaken  as  to  the  average  of  morality  among 
the  immigrant  classes  if  we  hold  too  closely  to  statistics.  Mr.  Eugene 
Schuyler,  a  resident  for  three  years  in  the  vicinity  of  Genoa,  reports 
that  in  that  community  doors  were  habitually  kept  unlocked,  that  no 
murder  had  been  committed  in  three  years,  and  that  the  lower  classes 
were  everywhere  law-abiding.  It  is  true  that  the  Italian  is  quick  to 
use  the  stiletto,  but  that  is  a  habit  due  to  the  inheritance  of  centuries. 
The  vendetta,  as  practiced  among  them,  is  due  to  the  same  cause ;  it 
dates  back  to  the  old  blood-feud  theory,  as  not  only  allowed,  but  incul- 
cated as  a  sacred  family  duty  among  our  own  Teutonic  ancestry,  and 
still  practiced  among  the  Sicilians,  Corsicans,  and  Sardinians,  though 
not  at  present  for  so  good  a  reason. 

I  thought  I  had  given  much  of  my  lecture  to  consideration  of  the 
ethical  aspects  of  this  question,  and  am  quite  surprised  at  Dr.  Eccles's 
criticism.  The  entire  lecture  has  dealt  with  rights  as  between  nation 
and  nation  and  the  nation  and  the  individual.  Mr.  Spencer's  theory 
as  to  the  effect  upon  national  life  of  the  formation  of  what  he  calls  the 
nidus  of  unhealthy  germs  is  quite  true ;  but  then  the  question  arises, 
How  shall  we  break  up  and  distribute  this  nidus  f  Like  will  always 
seek  like,  and  these  diseased  spots  can  be  counteracted  only  by  strength- 
ening the  social  system  and  social  order. 

It  is  possible  that  a  temporary  exclusion  of  foreigners  might  have  a 
favorable  effect  on  labor ;  but  immigration  has  been  going  on  too  long, 
and  has  gone  too  far.  No  power  on  earth  can  now  stop  it.  Consider 
the  family  relations  between  those  here  and  those  left  behind.  The 


The  Immigration  Problem.  313 

nexus  between  this  country  and  the  old  is  like  roots  in  the  ground,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  break  it  off.  If  it  could  be  done,  very  likely  wages 
would  rise.  But  another  law  would  step  in.  Would  not  the  members 
of  the  trades-unions  have  to  pay  more  for  what  they  buy  f  It  seems 
to  me  to  be  a  general  law  that  in  the  long  run  when  wages  are  high 
prices  are  high.  I  do  not  think  that  the  plan  proposed  would  ulti- 
mately be  for  the  benefit  of  the  laborer. 


THE  EVOLUTION 
OF  THE  AFRIC -AMERICAN 


BY 

SAMUEL  J.  BARROWS 

EDITOR  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  REGISTER. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Williams's  History  of  the  Colored  Race  in  America ;  Brackett's  The 
Negro  in  Maryland,  and  Notes  on  the  Progress  of  the  Colored  People ; 
Fortune's  Black  and  White ;  Cable's  The  Negro  Question,  and  The 
Silent  South ;  Mayo's  Third  Estate  at  the  South ;  Grady's  In  Plain 
Black  and  White,  in  Century,  April,  1888 ;  Bruce's  The  Plantation 
Negro  as  a  Freeman ;  Blair's  The  Prosperity  of  the  South  Dependent 
on  the  Elevation  of  the  Negro ;  Godkin's  The  Republican  Party  and 
the  Negro,  in  Forum,  May,  1889 ;  Stetson's  Problem  of  Negro  Educa- 
tion ;  Census  Statistics  bearing  on  the  Increase  and  Illiteracy  of  the 
Colored  Race  ;  Statistics  relating  to  Negro  Labor  in  Southern  Manu- 
factures, in  Chattanooga  Tradesman,  1891. 


THE     EVOLUTION     OF     THE    AFRIC- 

AMERICAN. 

BY  REV.  SAMUEL  J.  BARROWS. 

IT  is  a  curious  coincidence  in  American  history  that  about 
the  same  year  the  Mayflower  landed  at  Plymouth  the  first 
slave  ship  sailed  up  the  James  River.  The  Pilgrims,  when 
they  landed,  met  the  race  problem  in  the  shape  of  the  In- 
dian. The  slave  ship  brought  a  new  race  and  a  new  prob- 
lem to  our  shores.  White,  red,  black,  were  three  race  col- 
ors which  early  revealed  themselves  in  our  colonial  history — a 
narrow  coast  ribbon  of  white,  a  little  speck  of  black,  and  a 
broad  expanse  of  red  of  varying  hue,  rather  thinly  laid  on, 
but  tinging  the  map  from  ocean  to  ocean.  After  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy  years,  when  we  draw  again  an  ethnological 
map  of  the  United  States,  the  three  colors  are  still  there. 
But  what  a  change  in  their  proportions !  The  fringe  of 
white  has  become  a  great  sheet,  spreading  over  the  continent 
and  represented  by  sixty  millions  of  people.  The  little  speck 
of  black  has  become  a  broad  belt,  the  girdle  of  the  Gulf 
States,  representing  seven  millions  of  people ;  while  the  red 
is  reduced  to  a  few  pathetic  patches  in  the  far  West,  repre- 
senting but  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Indians,  which, 
if  distributed,  would  only  assign  nine  Indians  to  a  county 
throughout  the  United  States ;  while  on  the  Pacific  coast  a 
fringe  of  yellow  is  added  to  the  original  three  colonial  col- 
ors. Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  share  with  the  red  man  the 
continent  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  whose  discov- 
ery we  are  soon  to  celebrate. 

From  the  first  the  white  collided  with  the  Indian,  as  he 
has  since  collided  with  the  Negro  ajid  the  Mongolian.  The 
collision  with  the  Indian  was  the  collision  of  civilization 
with  savagery ;  with  the  Mongolian  the  collision  has  been 
industrial  and  social ;  with  the  Negro  there  was  practically 
no  collision  until  emancipation.  Up  to  that  time  he  was 
not  an  industrial,  social,  or  a  political  competitor ;  he  was  a 
slave. 

The  traveler  through  the  South  is  struck  with  the  strange 
fact  that  the  Indian  race  is  known  only  by  the  tombstones 
it  has  left  behind.  There  are  swarms  of  Indian  names, 


318  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

but  the  towns  they  designate  are  held  only  by  colored  peo- 
ple and  whites.  The  Indian  is  no  longer  a  menace  to  our 
civilization.  We  have  continually  pushed  him  outside  of  it. 
But  a  great  strip  of  dark  Africa  has  been  woven  into  the 
tissue  of  our  republic.  Can  it  be  unraveled  ? 

It  was  the  white  man  North  as  well  as  South  that  in- 
vited the  Negro  to  come.  The  Negro  came  not  because  he 
wanted  to,  but  because  he  could  not  help  it.  And  now  after 
two  hundred  and  seventy  years'  residence  in  this  country, 
and  an  increase  to  over  seven  millions  of  people,  it  is  idle 
to  ask  the  question,  Has  he  come  to  stay  ?  The  Negro  has 
come  to  stay  just  as  certainly  as  the  Pilgrim  who  came  at 
the  same  time.  But  he  has  not  come  to  stay  as  a  Negro  any 
more  than  the  Pilgrim  came  to  stay  as  a  Pilgrim.  So  long 
as  the  slave  trade  continued,  fresh  importations  of  Negroes 
poured  into  this  country — the  raw  and  undigested  material 
of  African  savagery.  But  when  that  stream  was  shut  off, 
and  later  when  manumission  followed,  the  dark  race  in  this 
country  was  committed  to  the  operation  and  modification  of 
the  great  forces  of  social,  industrial,  and  religious  evolution 
which  are  molding  and  developing  American  civilization  on 
this  continent. 

To  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association,  which  has  devoted 
itself  so  earnestly  and  profitably  to  the  study  and  diffusion 
of  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  I  need  not  spend  a  moment 
in  justifying  the  doctrine  itself.  It  is  rather  my  task  to 
show  its  application  in  some  measure  to  the  dark  race  in 
this  country.  A  few  papers  that  have  been  written  upon 
the  future  of  the  Negro  base  their  hopeless  view  almost 
entirely  upon  what  he  is  and  has  been  in  Africa,  removed 
from  the  pale  of  civilization.  Heredity  is  of  course  a  great 
factor  in  social  and  individual  development;  but  every 
student  of  evolution  knows  that  you  can  not  determine  the 
future  of  an  animal  wholly  by  studying  him  in  the  egg. 
And  those  who  declare  that  the  Negro  can  not  in  this 
country  outgrow  the  conditions  of  savagery  which  have 
marked  him  in  Africa,  utterly  ignore  the  existence  and  op- 
eration here  of  mighty  forces  which  did  not  operate  upon 
him  there.  They  neglect  one  of  the  most  potent  of  evolu- 
tionary factors — the  power  of  a  new  environment,  and  the 
Positive  forces  it  may  represent.  Thus  I  have  seen  a  Sioux 
ndian,  with  no  particle  of  white  blood  in  him,  taken  right 
from  the  woods,  put  upon  a  railroad  and  carried  from  his 
home  into  the  midst  of  white  civilization.  The  difference 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  319 

in  his  environment  between  his  white  home  and  his  forest 
home  measured  on  the  map  was  two  thousand  miles  ;  meas- 
ured in  human  history,  it  was  twenty  or  more  thousand  years. 
That  Indian  has  gone  through  the  schools  with  white  boys ; 
taken  a  high  rank  in  a  New  England  college ;  repeated  his 
success  in  a  medical  college ;  graduated  as  a  full-fledged  doc- 
tor, and  married  a  white  lady  of  some  literary  reputation. 
With  such  amazing  rapidity  can  the  transition  be  sometimes 
made  by  a  single  individual  from  the  barbarism  of  twenty 
thousand  years  ago  to  a  rank  far  in  advance  of  the  average 
man  in  the  civilization  of  our  day.  So  potent  are  the  forces 
which  environment  and  education  may  represent. 

Hence  I  have  not  thought  it  worth  while  to  spend  much 
time  in  showing  what  the  Negro  is  or  has  been  in  Africa. 
Such  a  study  is  valuable  mainly  to  show  what  are  the  racial 
characteristics  with  which  the  new  civilization  has  to  deal. 
The  more  important  question  is,  What  do  facts  show  it  is 
possible  to  do  with  the  African  in  this  country  ?  It  is  a 
short  historic  journey  back  to  the  barbarism  of  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  ancestors ;  if  they  had  not  been  caught  up  and  in- 
cluded in  the  spreading  stream  of  Greek  and  Eoman  civil- 
ization we  should  probably  have  been  living  in  rude  cabins 
surrounded  by  domestic  animals  and  drinking  not  from 
Dresden  or  Eoyal  Worcester,  but  from  rude  pottery  or  the 
skulls  of  our  enemies.  The  Afric- American  race  in  this 
country  is  being  merged  in  the  same  historic  stream,  and 
the  question  is,  Will  it  sink  or  swim  ?  I  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  it  will  swim. 

The  remarkable  difference  which  environment  will  pro- 
duce upon  a  race  is  nowhere  better  illustrated  than  in  the 
different  fortunes  of  the  Negro  and  Indian  races  in  this 
country.  A  few  tribes  of  Indians  were  absorbed  by  the 
whites  and  lost  their  racial  distinction.  But  the  majority 
were  kept  wholly  outside  of  the  pale  of  white  civilization. 
They  were  penned  in  reservations  and  left  to  their  language 
and  their  traditions.  The  Negroes,  on  the  contrary,  were  not 
imported  tribe  by  tribe,  and  no  tribal  lines  were  preserved. 
They  were  diffused  through  the  civilization  of  the  whites. 
They  worked  in  the  white  man's  field,  lived  in  his  home, 
learned  his  language,  and  copied,  as  far  as  permitted,  his 
institutions.  Without  waiting  for  act  of  Congress,  the 
imported  heathen  African  eventually  became  a  naturalized 
American.  The  average  colored  boy  of  the  South  no  more 
thinks  of  Africa  as  his  home  than  the  son  of  the  Pilgrim 


320  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

thinks  of  England  as  his  home.  The  term  Negro  is  no 
longer  an  appropriate  scientific  term  to  apply  to  the  dark 
race  in  this  country.  The  Afric-American  or  the  colored 
American  is  the  truer  designation.  The  Negro  is  a  purely 
African  product.  The  Afric  or  colored  American  is  the 
Negro  plus  the  environment  and  development  represented 
by  periods  of  ancestral  residence  varying  from  fifty  to  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years. 

What,  then,  has  been  the  influence  of  his  life  in  this  coun- 
try upon  the  African? 

His  history  in  this  country  is  divisible  into  a  period  of 
slavery  and  a  period  of  freedom.  The  period  of  slavery 
covers  over  two  centuries.  The  period  of  freedom  is  less 
than  thirty  years. 

I.  His  life  under  slavery  was  marked  by  important 
changes  in  his  physical  condition.  The  Negroes  imported 
to  this  country  were  not  all  of  one  type.  Though  largely 
from  the  coast,  they  represented  different  tribes  of  varying 
intelligence  brought  from  the  interior  in  the  slave  trade. 
One  of  the  effects  of  redistribution  in  this  country  has  been 
to  blend  more  or  less  these  different  tribes  and  to  extinguish 
all  sense  of  tribal  heritage  or  division.  Thus  the  pure- 
blooded  Africans  in  this  country  are  far  more  homogeneous 
than  the  Indians  who  are  separated  by  ancient  tribal  ani- 
mosities and  by  boundaries  of  custom  and  speech. 

But  there  is  another  physical  fact  which  the  ethnologist 
must  recognize ;  it  is  that  a  new  race,  which  is  neither  white 
nor  black,  but  which  partakes  of  the  qualities  of  both,  has 
sprung  into  being  on  this  continent.  Two  centuries  ago 
there  was  a  black  band  and  a  white  band ;  now  there  is  a 
shaded  Afghan.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  where  white  begins 
and  black  ends.  You  can  not  draw  absolutely  the  color 
line,  because  there  is  no  color  line  left ;  there  is  simply  a 
blending  of  shades.  The  extremes,  the  pure-blooded  white 
and  the  pure-blooded  African,  may  be  identified ;  but  you 
may  place  a  row  of  men  between  them  of  varying  shades 
who  can  not  be  said  to  belong  to  either  race  because  they 
belong  to  both.  They  are  not  Africans  or  Europeans ; 
they  are  Afric-Americans.  This  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant results  of  the  colonization  of  the  African  in  this 
country.  The  question  is  raised,  Shall  the  races  mix  ?  The 
answer  is,  They  have  mixed.  And  the  question,  Shall  they 
continue  to  mix  ?  will  probably  be  answered  in  the  future 
to  some  degree  as  it  has  been  in  the  past.  This  is  one  of 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  321 

the  most  important  contributions  which  the  Southern  white 
man  has  made  to  the  problem — the  contribution  of  his  own 
blood.  Laws  were  early  passed  against  the  intermarriage  of 
whites  and  blacks,  but  how  little  they  availed  is  seen  in  the 
vast  population  of  mulattoes  and  octoroons  through  the 
South.  Undoubtedly  amalgamation  would  have  gone  on 
had  both  races  been  entirely  free.  The  rigid  caste  lines 
drawn  by  slavery  tended  to  prevent  it,  but  the  fact  that  the 
slave  was  only  a  piece  of  property,  like  a  horse  or  a  cow, 
tended  to  promote  it.  And  one  of  the  most  terrible  features 
of  slavery  as  it  now  appears  to  us  was,  that  under  the  system 
of  slave  concubinage  men  held  their  own  offspring,  a  race  of 
semi-white  slaves,  in  bondage,  and  even  sold  them  as  mer- 
chandise. 

But  the  forces  which  operated  upon  the  Negro  in  slavery 
were  not  only  physical ;  they  were  intellectual,  social,  and 
moral.  There  were  forces  which  hindered  and  there 
were  forces  which  helped.  To  note  the  hindrances  we 
need  only  to  turn  to  the  statute  books  of  the  Southern 
States  in  slave  times.  It  is  very  evident  that  all  influ- 
ences were  to  be  withheld  from  the  Negro  which  should 
prevent  him  from  ever  being  anything  but  a  slave.  It 
was  possible  to  buy  his  personal  freedom ;  but  his  intel- 
lectual, social,  and  political  freedom  were  to  be  forever  with- 
held. In  the  case  of  several  of  the  States  it  was  a  penal 
offense  to  teach  slaves  the  elements  of  common  learning. 
In  Virginia  the  fine  for  teaching  reading  or  writing  to 
slaves,  or  even  to  free  colored  persons,  was  from  $10  to  $100 ; 
in  Alabama  from  $250  to  $500  ;  in  Mississippi  the  punish- 
ment was  imprisonment  for  one  year ;  in  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi  no  one  could  emancipate 
a  slave  except  by  authority  of  the  Legislature.  "  In  Georgia 
a  will  setting  free  a  slave  was  null  and  void ;  any  person  at- 
tempting to  execute  it  was  fined  $1,000."  The  discrimi- 
nations against  the  Negro  extended  to  the  criminal  code. 
There  was  one  set  of  laws  for  the  white  and  another  for  the 
black.  That  the  Negro  made  little  progress  in  education  in 
two  hundred  years  of  slavery  is  easily  explained — the  white 
man  did  not  mean  that  he  should.  He  was  looked  upon  as 
under  a  divine  curse  which  it  was  only  the  duty  of  the  white 
man  to  perpetuate.  "  He  was  doomed,"  as  Judge  Ruffin,  of 
North  Carolina,  sorrowfully  declared,  "  to  live  without  knowl- 
edge and  without  the  capacity  to  make  anything  his  own, 
and  to  toil  that  another  may  reap  the  fruits." 


322  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

Yet  if  there  were  forces  which  hindered  there  were  also 
forces  which  helped.  It  was  impossible  for  the  white  man 
to  make  the  Negro  an  efficient  slave  without  in  some  way 
contributing  to  his  development.  The  Negro  came  into 
contact  with  a  race  of  greater  intelligence.  He  learned 
its  language.  He  acquired  some  of  its  arts  and  indus- 
tries. He  was  taught  to  work.  He  exchanged  tribal  organ- 
ization for  family  life,  the  authority  of  a  petty  barbarian 
chieftain  for  that  of  a  master  who,  though  sometimes  a  white 
barbarian,  was  as  often  a  kind  and  considerate  patriarch. 
Two  qualities  the  Negro  brought  with  him  from  Africa  :  one 
was  a  native  imitativeness  which  gave  him  remarkable  facil- 
ity in  copying  the  life  he  entered ;  the  other  was  a  natural 
docility  and  affection  which  easily  yielded  to  superior 
authority,  and  which  clung  with  loyalty  and  devotion  to 
the  oak  around  which  it  climbed.  The  patriarchal  element 
in  slavery  brought  out  this  loyalty  and  devotion  in  the 
highest  degree.  The  master  was  often  looked  up  to  as  a 
kind  father  and  friend  by  the  serfs  that  clustered  around 
him.  With  all  the  horrors  of  slavery,  there  are  nowhere  to 
be  found  more  beautiful  instances  of  devoted  personal  at- 
tachment than  those  which  existed  between  masters  and 
slaves.  And  in  all  history  the  loyalty  and  affection  of  the 
Negro  was  put  to  no  severer  test  than  it  was  in  the  war.  As 
a  Southern  general  said  to  me :  "  When  we  went  to  the  war, 
our  wives  and  daughters  were  all  at  their  mercy  on  the 
plantations ;  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  the  slaves  from 
annihilating  them.  But  their  loyalty  deserves  our  everlast- 
ing gratitude." 

Nor  must  we  overlook  the  influence  on  the  religious  life 
of  the  Negro  which  was  exerted  during  slavery.  It  was 
piety  not  closely  combined  with  morality ;  it  was  strongly 
infused  with  superstition,  some  of  it  black  and  a  good  deal 
of  it  white ;  but  it  was  about  the  only  form  of  associated 
activity  permitted  to  the  Negro ;  it  helped  to  restrain  his 
hand  during  the  war,  and  it  laid  the  foundation  for  his  re- 
markable religious  development  under  freedom. 

It  was  not  from  slavery  as  an  institution,  but  from  con- 
tact with  the  forms,  spirit,  and  forces  of  civilization,  that 
the  Negro  derived  these  advantages.  His  slavery  was  the 
price  he  paid  for  it.  It  was  as  expensive  to  the  white  man 
as  it  was  to  the  Negro.  The  war  which  freed  the  slave 
freed  the  white  man  from  the  curse  of  the  same  system. 
Nominally,  the  Negro  has  been  free  for  twenty-nine  years. 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  323 

But  it  was  not  until  the  war  closed  and  both  armies  were 
disbanded,  and  social  and  industrial  reconstruction  began, 
that  his  freedom  became  operative.  One  fourth  of  a  cen- 
tury covers  his  experience  with  freedom.  What  has  he  done 
with  it,  and  what  has  it  done  for  him  ? 

In  an  extensive  trip  through  the  South  last  spring,  I  en- 
deavored to  obtain  a  body  of  evidence  on  this  subject.  My 
testimony  was  taken  from  both  whites  and  Negroes  in  every 
station  of  life — rural,  urban,  industrial,  and  domestic.  I 
visited  the  colored  people  in  their  homes,  schools,  and 
churches,  in  the  thickly  populated  regions  of  the  Black 
Belt.  In  two  annual  sessions  of  the  Mohonk  Indian  Confer- 
ence I  have  had  opportunities  for  conference  with  represent- 
ative men  from  all  parts  of  the  South,  most  of  them  educa- 
tors of  the  colored  people.  My  object  has  been  to  compare 
the  condition  of  the  colored  people  immediately  after  the 
war  as  I  knew  it  personally,  and  as  any  one  may  know  it 
who  studies  the  record,  with  their  present  condition  and 
prospects  after  twenty-five  years  of  freedom.  In  an  article 
in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  June,  1891,  I  have  treated  one 
phase  of  that  question,  namely :  What  the  Southern  Negro 
is  doing  for  Himself.  I  refer  to  the  details  there  given,  and 
also  to  a  paper  read  before  the  Mohonk  Negro  Conference 
in  June  last  on  The  Situation  of  the  Negro,  and  the  Negro's 
View  of  the  Situation,  in  general  support  of  my  position. 
In  preparing  this  paper,  however,  I  have  for  some  weeks 
past  been  engaged  in  collecting  a  fresh  body  of  testimony 
concerning  various  aspects  of  this  problem. 

When  the  slave  became  a  freed  man  two  great  evolution- 
ary forces  were  free  to  operate  upon  him  as  they  had  not 
been  before.  One  was  industrial,  the  other  educational. 
When  he  became  free  to  labor  for  himself,  to  acquire  and 
hold  property,  he  felt  the  impulse  and  allurement  of  new 
and  powerful  motives.  When  he  became  free  to  learn  all 
that  he  was  capable  of  learning,  and  when  the  white  man, 
too,  became  free  to  teach  him  all  he  was  capable  of  teaching 
him,  the  colored  man  was  brought  out  from  the  gray  dark- 
ness of  slavery  into  the  intellectual  sunburst  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  A  new  set  of  ethical  motives  began  to 
operate  upon  him  and  he  began  to  respond  to  them.  The 
result  has  been  that  no  race  in  the  history  of  the  world  of 
which  we  have  any  knowledge  has  made  more  progress  in 
twenty-five  years. 

Of  these  great  evolutionary  forces  and  methods,  the  indus- 


324  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

trial  one  is  that  which  as  yet  is  the  most  far-reaching  and 
effective.  It  lies  at  the  very  basis  of  the  solution  of  the 
problem  for  the  Negro  and  for  his  white  brother.  In  my 
trip  through  the  South  I  was  surprised  at  the  extent  to 
which  the  Negro  had  become  a  land-renter  and  a  land-owner. 
I  regret  that  the  Census  Bureau  has  not  as  yet  classified  the 
statistics  on  this  subject.  There  are  sections  of  the  South 
in  which  the  nickering  light  of  the  common  school  has  done 
but  little  for  the  Negro,  and  where  he  is  still  wrapped  in  in- 
tellectual darkness  concerning  the  three  R's ;  but  there  is 
hardly  a  section  of  the  South  where  this  industrial  stimulus 
is  not  found.  The  colored  man  in  the  most  secluded  re- 
gions of  the  Black  Belt  may  not  be  able  to  hold  a  pen ;  he 
can  hold  a  plow.  He  may  not  be  able  to  read  a  book,  but 
he  can  read  the  face  of  Nature,  and  knows  how  to  cultivate 
her  smile.  In  a  large  portion  of  the  South  to  be  sure  the 
Negro  is  still  only  a  tenant  farmer ;  and  he  gets  his  living 
under  a  system  of  monstrous  exaction  which  is  but  another 
form  of  commercial  slavery.  But  this  very  exaction  is  over- 
reaching itself.  The  colored  man  pays  such  a  large  rental 
for  the  farm  in  proportion  to  its  selling  price  that  he  is 
tempted  to  buy  it,  and  often  succeeds  in  doing  it.  Prof. 
J.  B.  Clark,  of  Smith  College,  Massachusetts,  one  of  our 
ablest  economists,  in  a  paper  on  the  Industrial  Future  of 
the  Negro,  says :  "  At  the  outset  of  this  work  it  was  evident 
to  every  observer  that,  however  wisely  funds  might  be  used, 
and  however  large  they  might  be,  there  would  be  a  great 
unreached  residuum  of  the  Negro  population."  Is  there 
any  great  natural  force  by  which  this  vast  residuum  can  be 
reached?  Prof.  Clark  finds  it  in  "land-hunger."  "The 
census  may  not  show,"  he  says,  "  that  a  large  numerical  pro- 
portion of  the  colored  race  hold  land  ;  but  it  will  probably 
show  that  the  proportion  has  lately  been  increasing,  and  that 
under  conditions  relatively  discouraging."  He  ventures  the 
opinion  that  "  the  great  Negro  problem  will  be  found  to  be 
practically  solved  if  we  put  the  right  construction  on  the 
forthcoming  volume  of  the  census  report."  In  Alabama  I 
had  at  Tuskegee  a  conference  with  teachers  and  students 
from  all  parts  of  the  State  and  from  several  other  States. 
Two  things  were  evident :  first,  the  hard  commercial  condi- 
tions under  which  the  colored  man  gets  his  land;  and, 
secondly,  that  he  was  breaking  through  them  and  buying 
farms  and  rearing  homes. 

One  of  the  blackest  States  in  the  Black  Belt  is  Missis- 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  325 

sippi.  It  is  one  of  the  three  States  in  which  the  Negro  popu- 
lation has  been  increasing  faster  than  the  white  during  the 
last  ten  years,  and  this  notwithstanding  the  assumption  that 
Mississippi  is  a  pretty  hard  place  for  a  colored  man  to  live 
in.  President  Woodworth,  of  the  Tougaloo  University,  con- 
ducted last  year  an  extensive  inquiry  covering  the  whole 
State  concerning  the  industrial  and  social  condition  of  the 
Negroes.  The  result  of  his  investigation  led  him  to  the  con- 
clusion that  many  in  every  part  of  the  State  are  owning 
homes  of  their  own.  Five  per  cent  for  the  country  dis- 
tricts, he  thinks,  would  not  be  an  overestimate.  The  town 
reports  indicate  that  not  far  from  twenty  per  cent  own  the 
places  which  they  occupy.  The  average  size  of  plantations 
is  not  far  from  one  hundred  acres.  He  had  reports  from 
many  plantations  of  four  hundred  acres  and  over ;  some 
of  one  thousand  to  one  thousand  six  hundred  acres.  Out 
of  twenty  replies  made  to  him  by  intelligent  colored  men, 
one  report  said  that  the  Negroes  have  difficulty  in  obtaining 
land ;  one  says  that  there  is  some  difficulty ;  the  other  eight- 
een report  essentially  that  the  Negro  has  no  more  difficulty 
than  the  white  man  in  getting  land.  One  of  the  most  im- 
portant questions  asked  by  him  was :  "  Has  the  Negro,  if  not 
lazy  and  shiftless,  a  fair  chance  to  make  a  living  and  save 
money  ?  "  Seventeen  answers  were  emphatically  "  Yes  " ; 
only  three  replied  "  No." 

Similar  testimony  I  gathered  from  the  conferences  I  held 
and  from  individual  witnesses.  The  Negro  is  nowhere 
wanted  so  much  as  he  is  in  the  South.  Nowhere  are  his  in- 
dustrial opportunities  so  good.  All  trades  are  now  opened 
to  him.  While  social  lines  are  very  sharply  drawn  in  the 
South,  there  is  great  industrial  freedom  and  affiliation. 
The  colored  man  and  the  white  man  work  side  by  side.  Not 
a  few  colored  men  testified  to  me  that  the  industrial  pros- 
pects of  the  colored  people  are  better  in  the  South  than  in 
the  North.  It  is  evident  to  the  educators  of  the  colored 
people  and  most  intelligent  and  influential  leaders  that  the 
education  which  the  Negro  is  to  receive  to  fit  him  for  his  op- 
portunities must  be  mainly  industrial,  and  all  the  large 
schools  and  colleges  are  making  attempts  in  this  direction. 

Turn  now  to  consider  the  educational  forces  represented 
in  the  school  and  the  college. 

Before  the  smoke  of  the  war  had  cleared  away,  while  yet 
the  cannon  were  still  booming,  the  Northern  teacher  had 
begun  to  teach  the  African  his  alphabet ;  she  had  armed 


326  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

him  with  pen  and  pencil.  Noble  and  wonderful  was  the 
devotion  of  the  women  who  carried  this  gospel  to  the  freed- 
men;  and  rich  were  the  fruits  of  their  sacrifice.  The 
question  whether  the  colored  boy  or  girl  could  learn  or 
would  learn  was  not  long  left  in  doubt.  Indeed,  men  and 
women,  some  of  them  advanced  in  life,  showed  a  surprising 
intellectual  hunger  and  learned  to  read  and  to  write.  I  re- 
call the  figure  of  an  old  colored  man,  a  messenger  in  the 
State  Department  immediately  after  the  war,  who,  while 
the  weighty  affairs  of  State  were  being  handled  in  the  Sec- 
retary's room,  sat  not  far  away  from  the  entry  spelling  out 
his  Bible  letter  by  letter  and  word  by  word.  He  would 
make  a  frightful  wreck  of  some  Hebrew  proper  name,  but 
would  pick  up  the  pieces  and  go  on.  He  could  not  read  with 
freedom,  but  he  thanked  heaven  that  he  had  the  freedom  to 
read.  Many  stories  might  be  told  of  the  remarkable  sacri- 
fices which  individuals  of  the  colored  race  are  making  to 
get  an  education,  but  more  important  is  it  to  know  the  ex- 
tent to  which  the  race  as  a  whole  is  availing  itself  of  this 
privilege.  The  best  answer  is  furnished  in  the  statistics  of 
education  compiled  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, and  in  an  analysis  of  these  statistics  prepared  by  the 
Commissioner,  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris.  "  In  the  thirteen  years 
for  which  separate  statistics  for  the  white  and  the  black 
races  in  the  South  are  accessible,  the  white  children  enrolled 
in  the  public  schools  have  increased  from  1,827,139  to  3,197,- 
830,  or  about  seventy-five  per  cent,  while  the  increase  of 
the  white  population  as  a  whole  has  been  only  thirty-four 
per  cent.  The  school  attendance  has  increased  more  than 
twice  as  fast  as  the  population.  .  .  .  But  the  education  of 
the  colored  race,"  says  Dr.  Harris,  "  has  a  still  better  record 
to  show.  In  the  thirteen  years  the  enrollment  has  increased 
from  580,017  to  1,238,622,  an  increase  of  more  than  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  per  cent ;  while  the  colored  popula- 
tion as  a  whole  has  increased  only  twenty-seven  per  cent 
during  the  period.  In  other  words,  the  school  attendance 
of  colored  children  over  the  whole  South  has  increased  more 
than  four  times  as  fast  as  the  entire  colored  population. 
And  this  increase  has  been  constant  and  steady."  The 
Superintendent  of  State  Education  in  Alabama,  a  former 
Confederate  major,  said  to  me :  "  The  colored  people  are 
more  interested  in  education  than  the  whites."  While  the 
enrollment  is  large,  the  length  of  the  school  session  is  small, 
averaging  only  ninety-five  days  of  the  year  in  the  South  At- 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  327 

lantic  division  of  States,  while  in  the  North  Atlantic  the 
average  was  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  (Jays.  The  colored 
people  are  doing  something  to  "  supplement "  the  school 
fund  and  lengthen  the  school  session  by  private  contribu- 
tions. 

One  of  the  interesting  questions  which  the  opening  of 
education  to  the  Negro  presents  to  the  ethnologist  is  :  What 
is  the  relative  capacity  for  education  of  the  pure-blooded 
Afric- American  and  the  mulatto  or  mixed  race  ?  On  this 
subject  I  have  written  to  the  presidents  of  all  the  colored 
colleges  in  the  country.  The  experience  of  many  of  them 
has  extended  over  a  period  of  twenty-five  years.  Several 
thousand  colored  students  have  passed  under  their  observa- 
tion. I  can  only  give  you  the  briefest  digest  of  their  replies. 
The  testimony  is  not  unanimous,  but  for  the  most  part  it 
points  to  the  conclusion  that  the  difference  in  intellectual 
capacity  between  mulattoes  and  pure-bloods  is  not  manifest 
as  a  class.  The  president  of  Fisk  University  says :  "  I 
think  the  proportion  of  bright  pupils  among  the  mulattoes 
is  greater  than  among  pure-blooded  negroes ;  yet  some  of 
the  very  best  and  ablest  men  and  women  that  we  have  grad- 
uated from  Fisk  University  were  of  the  latter  class."  The 
president  of  Morgan  College,  Baltimore,  says :  "  I  should 
say  that  the  infusion  of  the  whites  quickened  and  intensi- 
fied the  aptitudes,  while  nothing  might  be  added  to  their 
capacity  or  strength.  This  would,  of  course,  favor  the  mu- 
latto in  point  of  time  in  which  to  accomplish  a  given  task ; 
but  leave  out  the  element  of  time  or  give  the  Negro  all  the 
time  and  training  necessary,  and  he  will  learn  as  thoroughly 
and  retain  as  tenaciously  as  the  mulatto."  Several  say  that 
they  discover  no  difference  whatever ;  that  when  they  enjoy 
the  same  advantages  their  success  is  about  the  same.  Miss 
Martha  Schofield,  of  Aiken,  S.  C.,  who  has  been  twenty- 
seven  years  in  this  work,  says :  "  Good  Negro  blood  is  far 
superior  to  the  poor  white  and  Negro  mixed."  The  fullest 
answer  to  the  question  comes  from  Hampton,  and  is  given 
in  detail  in  its  account  of  its  twenty-two  years'  work  :  "  Of 
fifteen  colored-girl  salutatorians,  four  were  bfack,  three 
dark,  seven  light,  and  one  apparently  white.  Of  the  fifteen 
young-men  valedictorians,  seven  were  black,  one  dark,  and 
seven  were  light.  In  other  words,  of  young  women,  seven 
were  dark  and  eight  light ;  of  young  men,  eight  were  dark 
and  seven  light ;  which  divides  the  honors  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible— fifteen  to  the  dark  and  fifteen  to  the  light.  After 
22 


328  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

the  first  decade  of  the  school,  investigation  was  made  with 
a  precisely  similar  result.  That  it  should  appear  again  over 
the  whole  period  of  seventeen  years  is  surprising  and  seems 
significant. " 

This  testimony  could  be  greatly  multiplied.  The  presi- 
dent of  Storer  College,  Harper's  Ferry,  says  :  "  From  eighty 
to  ninety  per  cent  of  our  graduates  have  a  marked  tincture 
of  white  blood.  The  very  dark  ones  who  pursue  the  course 
are  about  up  to  the  average."  A  few  declare  that  the  mulat- 
toes  are  brighter.  Another  that  the  difference  is  only  one 
of  application,  and  as  frequently  in  favor  of  the  black  as  the 
mulatto. 

It  has  been  recently  argued  by  a  Southern  writer  on  this 
question  that  the  Negroes  get  most  of  their  intellectual 
power  from  an  infusion  of  white  blood,  and  that  there  is 
danger  of  breeding  back  to  the  full-blooded  type.  If  this 
be  so,  then  it  might  be  argued  that  the  best  thing  for  the 
South  to-day  would  be  to  repeal  the  laws  on  its  statute  books 
forbidding  the  intermarriage  of  the  races.  But  a  very 
ample  array  of  testimony  shows  that  the  question  of  race 
mixing  is  not  complicated  by  degeneracy.  The  mixed- 
blooded  stand  as  high  in  the  schools  as  the  pure-bloods.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  fortunes  of  the  pure-blooded  do  not  de- 
pend upon  race  mixing,  for  the  capacity  of  the  pure- 
blooded  appears  to  be  as  great  as  that  of  the  mixed  race. 
The  question  of  race  mixing  is  to  be  decided,  therefore,  on 
other  grounds  than  that  of  the  intellectual  fortunes  of  the 
race.  It  may  be,  and  I  hope  ultimately  will  be,  left  to  the 
natural  affinities  of  the  races,  not  hindered  by  arbitrary  and 
unnatural  legislation. 

Another  question  which  I  submitted  to  the  educators  of 
the  colored  people  was  relative  to  the  special  aptitude  of  the 
races.  The  general  testimony  seems  to  be  that  there  is  as 
much  diversity  of  capacity  among  them  as  among  the 
whites.  They  succeed  well  in  English  and  in  imitative  stud- 
ies. Some  teachers  report  a  lack  in  power  of  generalization,  in 
the  power  to  see  things  in  their  relative  proportions.  Some 
report  better  success  in  English  than  in  mathematics ;  others 
report  that  some  of  the  most  acute  mathematicians  they 
have  ever  seen  have  been  Negroes.  Their  capacity  for  Eng- 
lish is  generally  conceded.  Concerning  this,  Prof.  Shaler 
says :  "  The  Negro  has  mastered  the  English  in  a  very  re- 
markable manner  and  without  deliberate  instruction  by  any 
form  of  schooling,  and  by  so  doing  has  given  better  proof 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  329 

of  his  natural  capacity  than  by  any  other  of  his  accomplish- 
ments in  this,  to  him,  very  new  world.  There  are  tens  of 
thousands  of  untrained  blacks  in  this  country  who  by  their 
command  of  English  phrase  are  entitled  to  rank  as  educated 
men."  "  I  believe  in  general,"  he  adds,  "that  our  Negroes 
have  a  better  sense  of  English  than  the  peasant  class  of 
Great  Britain."* 

But  I  do  not  forget  that  I  am  addressing  an  ethical  asso- 
ciation. And  one  of  the  points  upon  which  emphasis  was 
laid  in  the  syllabus  furnished  me  was  the  ethical  condition 
of  the  Negro.  Upon  this  I  have  taken  special  pains  to  se- 
cure fresh  and  competent  evidence. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  Negro  started  with  a  very 
rude  and  primitive  savage  code.  Let  it  be  remembered  also 
that  the  code,  both  legal  and  ethical,  into  which  he  was  intro- 
duced in  this  country  was  not  as  high  as  it  is  now.  Under 
the  system  of  slavery  certain  ethical  distinctions  were 
blurred.  This  was  so  concerning  the  rights  of  property 
and  the  relation  of  the  sexes — directions  in  which  the  Negro 
is  supposed  to  be  naturally  weak.  Nor  was  temperance  a 
virtue  that  was  cultivated  in  early  days  either  North  or 
South  as  it  is  now.  We  must  not  forget  that  the  white 
man  has  developed  as  well  as  the  Negro,  and  that  we  are 
judging  the  colored  man  by  new  standards  to-day  into  which 
freedom  has  ushered  him. 

Under  the  slave  system  the  Negro  owned  nothing,  not  even 
himself.  It  was  impossible  that  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  rights  of  property  could  be  developed  when  the  sense  of 
personal  ownership  was  lacking.  A  story  told  by  my  friend 
General  E.  Whittlesey  will  illustrate  this.  On  his  march 
with  Sherman  to  the  sea  his  horse  became  disabled.  He  got 
into  an  ambulance  and  rode  with  a  colored  driver.  He  asked 
him  how  he  managed  to  get  along  as  a  slave — whether  he 
had  enough  to  eat.  "  Oh,  yes,  massa,  plenty  to  eat."  "  Well, 
you  don't  mean  to  say  that  you  stole  and  ate  your  mas- 
ter's pigs  ?  "  "  Oh,  no,  massa,  I  didn't  stole  none.  Dem  pigs 
was  massa's  and  I  was  massa's,  and  when  I  ate  one  of  dem 
pigs  dat  pig  was  still  massa's." 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  is  just  as  easy  to  justify  the 
slave's  right  to  that  pig  as  the  master's  right  to  the  slave. 
The  human  larceny  has  been  given  up  and  the  larceny  of 
the  pigs  is  disappearing  with  it.  On  this  important  point  I 
can  not  do  better  than  to  give  you  some  of  the  testimony  I 

*  Arena,  1891. 


330  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

have  gathered  from  the  South.  The  president  of  Fisk  Uni- 
versity writes  :  "  The  higher  standard  of  instruction  in  the 
churches  and  the  higher  ideas  of  the  family  relation  are  the 
best  illustrations  of  the  improvement  made  in  the  ethical 
development  of  the  Negro." 

The  president  of  Morgan  College,  Baltimore,  says :  "  There 
is  a  higher  estimate  of  character,  a  growing  regard  for  the 
truth,  a  clearer  recognition  of  the  rights  of  ownership,  an 
earnest  class  of  leaders  in  the  ministry  and  among  the 
teachers,  who  insist  upon  the  recognition  of  pure  ethics." 

Another  says :  "  I  find  a  marked  growth  in  integrity,  the 
meeting  of  obligations.  This  is  especially  true  among  the 
laboring  classes.  They  have  certainly  been  impressed  with 
the  sanctity  of  marriage." 

Eev.  J.  E.  Jewett,  of  Glenwood,  S.  C.,  says :  "  When  we 
consider  all  their  antecedents,  the  degradation  of  slavery,  the 
immoral  examples  which  have  been  placed  before  them  by 
the  white  race,  and  all  the  obstacles  and  disadvantages  they 
had  to  struggle  against,  I  think  their  moral  condition  is  all 
that  we  could  reasonably  expect.  They  are  an  emotional 
and  religious  people,  but  the  majority  have  not  yet  learned 
that  morality  and  temperance  are  among  the  best  parts  of 
religion." 

The  principal  of  the  Normal  and  Industrial  School  of 
Huntsville,  Ala.,  says :  "  A  more  enlightened  method  of  re- 
ligious worship,  increasing  respect  for  home  and  its  respon- 
sibilities, a  more  general  observance  of  the  law  of  contract 
and  rules  of  enlightened  society,  are  facts  which  illustrate 
the  ethical  development  of  the  Negro." 

President  Mitchell,  of  Leland  University,  New  Orleans, 
says :  "  The  ethical  development  proceeds  upon  the  line  of 
his  education ;  the  facts  which  illustrate  this  are  too  nu- 
merous to  be  detailed  here." 

The  president  of  the  Central  Tennessee  College  says: 
"  The  Negroes  have  better  churches ;  they  are  more  regular 
in  their  family  arrangements,  have  better  homes,  observe 
the  marriage  relation  better  than  formerly.  In  some  places 
there  is  less  stealing,  fewer  illegitimate  children,  and  higher 
ideas  of  female  virtue — more  disgrace  to  be  impure." 

The  principal  of  the  Normal  College  at  Pine  Bluff,  Ark., 
mentions  their  improved  homes  with  separate  apartments, 
their  fine  churches,  and  as  an  evidence  of  their  growth  in 
self-respect,  says :  "  A  good  many  of  them,  if  you  refer  to 
them  as  *  freemen,'  will  inform  you  that  they  were  never 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  331 

slaves.  Should  you  offer  them  clothes,  they  would  inform 
you  that  they  were  not  paupers  and  did  not  need  old 
clothes." 

President  Hickman,  of  Clark  University,  Atlanta,  says : 
"  They  are  coming  more  into  honest  and  business  methods 
of  trade.  They  are  home-loving,  and  many  of  them  keep 
the  marriage  vow  holy.  They  are  liberal  and  kind  to  the 
suffering." 

Principal  Crosby,  of  the  Normal  School,  Plymouth,  N.  C., 
says  :  "  We  can  not  expect  very  great  moral  improvement  in 
twenty-five  years  considering  the  poverty  and  ignorance 
and  the  slavish  customs  of  the  Negroes."  He  thinks  the 
ethical  development  of  the  mass  is  slow. 

The  principal  of  the  Washington  Normal  School,  Miss 
Lucy  E.  Moten,  says :  "  Our  school  statistics  and  reports 
show  a  steady  development  and  growth  in  all  the  moral  vir- 
tues, as  politeness,  truth,  honesty,  integrity,  kindness,  for- 
bearance, helpfulness,  teachableness,  promptness,  cheerful- 
ness, and  love.  There  is  decided  growth  and  earnest  effort." 

President  Dunton,  of  Claflin  University,  S.  C.,  one  of  the 
largest  colleges  for  colored  people  in  the  country,  says :  "  That 
the  Negro  is  improving  no  one  can  doubt.  As  a  proof  we 
would  mention  improved  home  life ;  the  education  of  the 
children ;  the  Sunday-school ;  the  financial  conditions  of 
the  people ;  the  realization  of  the  fact  that  if  they  would 
rise  they  must  make  corresponding  effort." 

President  Thirkield,  of  Gammon  Theological  School,  At- 
lanta, Ga.,  gives  this  instance  :  "  At  Bust  University,  Holly 
Springs,  Mississippi,  the  main  college  building  was  destroyed. 
Three  hundred  students  had  to  be  sent  out  to  board  in  the 
town.  During  the  year  there  was  but  one  case  of  discipline 
for  immorality." 

President  Russell,  of  the  Southland  College  and  Normal 
Institute,  Helena,  Ark.,  gives  similar  testimony:  "In  re- 
gard to  ethics  there  is  great  deficiency,  yet  there  is  develop- 
ment. Our  professors,  who  are  white,  say  that  they  fre- 
quently loan  two  to  four  pencils  per  day,  yet  almost  every 
one  comes  back.  Nearly  every  day  handkerchiefs  and  pencils 
are  put  upon  the  desk  to  await  an  owner.  Our  school- 
house  and  chapel  stand  unlocked  nearly  all  the  time. 
Things  are  left  undisturbed.  Our  carpenter  shop  with  tools 
of  value  stands  unlocked  much  of  the  time  ;  nothing  has  been 
taken  that  I  know  of.  The  washing  for  all  of  the  students 
is  done  at  the  college,  the  clothes  left  on  the  lines  at  night, 


332  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

and  scarcely  ever  is  anything  missed.  I  do  not  think  it 
would  be  safe  to  leave  cooked  sweet  potatoes  or  roasted  pork 
lying  around  loose." 

The  testimony  from  Hampton  as  rendered  by  Vice- Princi- 
pal Rev.  H.  B.  Frissell  is  that  the  colored  man  pays  his 
debts.  "  Years  ago  it  was  difficult  for  us  to  collect  the  bills 
our  students  owed  when  they  went  out  from  the  school ;  we 
now  have  no  trouble.  The  same  thing  is  shown  in  the  im- 
proved honesty  of  the  treasurers  of  the  Negro  societies  about 
us.  Our  students  report  a  marked  improvement  in  the 
matter  of  purity  in  the  country  districts  from  which  they 
come,  and  a  marked  decrease  in  the  number  of  births  of 
light  children.  I  have  myself  noted  the  very  great  diminu- 
tion in  crime  in  the  country  districts  of  Virginia.  This 
fact  is  borne  witness  to  by  the  sheriff,  especially  in  the 
matter  of  thieving." 

The  religious  development  of  the  colored  people  so  far  as 
concerns  their  growth  out  of  superstition  has  been  slow, 
as  has  been  the  religious  development  of  the  white  people  in 
the  same  direction.  But  the  development  of  religion  as  an 
organized  institution  among  the  colored  people  has  been  re- 
markable. It  has  been  assumed  that  the  Negro  has  no  power 
of  organization ;  but  the  wonderful  extent  to  which  they 
have  organized  their  religious  bodies,  as  seen  in  the  great 
Methodist  and  Baptist  denominations,  is  a  refutation  of  this 
idea.  With  the  growth  of  intelligence  and  the  slow  but 
sure  development  of  an  educated  ministry,  the  colored  peo- 
ple are  gradually  reaching  a  plane  of  religious  development 
which  will  compare  favorably,  at  least,  with  that  of  the  white 
religious  bodies  around  them. 

There  are  thus  abundant  proofs  that  the  colored  people 
are  gradually  freeing  themselves  from  their  ancient  bar- 
barism and  from  the  degradation  and  mental  servitude  in 
which  slavery  held  them.  Has  this  any  bearing  on  their  re- 
lations to  their  white  neighbors  ?  We  have  seen  that  it  was 
the  policy  of  the  slave-holder  to  keep  the  Negro  in  igno- 
rance. About  the  only  Southern  people  now  who  believe  in 
the  continuance  of  such  a  policy  are,  with  few  exceptions, 
poor  whites,  who  on  the  average  are  more  ignorant  than  the 
Negroes  themselves.  The  great  majority  of  intellectual  and 
influential  Southern  men  are  committed  to  the  policy  of 
Negro  education.  They  are  far  from  conceding  the  co- 
education of  the  races  ;  there  are  even  laws  against  it ;  but 
they  are  willing  that  the  colored  people  should  have  some 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  333 

share  of  the  current  funds,  even  beyond  the  amount  which 
the  colored  people  themselves  contribute.  The  insistence 
on  separate  schools  has  occasioned  discrimination  concern- 
ing the  division  of  the  school  funds ;  and  in  some  communi- 
ties the  method  of  division  has  not  been  equitable.  But 
this  condition  of  affairs  is  gradually  improving.  The  Com- 
missioner of  Education  tells  us  "  that  $216,000,000  have  been 
paid  from  the  public  taxes  during  the  period  of  thirteen 
years  for  the  support  of  schools,  white  and  colored,  and,  as 
nearly  as  can  be  estimated,  the  colored  people  have  received 
nearly  fifteen  millions  of  the  whole.  This  is  not  quite  a  pro- 
rata  share,  but  it  approximates  it.  The  regular  increase  of 
the  amount  paid  for  schools  in  the  South  is  noticeable.  In 
1877  it  amounted  to  $11,231,073,  while  in  1889  it  had 
swelled  to  $23,226,982,  or  to  107  per  cent  more  than  was 
expended  thirteen  years  ago."  Thus  the  Negro  is  getting  a 
fair  share  of  his  educational  rights. 

As  to  his  political  rights,  Southern  white  men  very  freely 
admit  that  the  colored  American  does  not,  is  not  permitted 
to,  exercise  them.  There  is  but  little  intimidation  practiced, 
but  a  good  deal  of  counting  out  and  vote  buying.  The 
staple  argument  by  which  this  is  defended  is  that  the  col- 
ored people  are  so  ignorant  that  to  permit  them  to  rule 
would  be  fatal ;  that  they  are  still  a  race  of  minors.  The 
colored  man,  too,  has  not  come  to  understand  the  relation 
which  his  vote  bears  to  the  public  welfare.  He  will  too  often 
sell  it  for  a  glass  of  whisky  ;  or  he  may  be  too  indifferent  to 
exercise  it  at  all.  In  some  districts  of  the  Black  Belt  I  dis- 
covered black  men  who  had  not  voted  for  several  years — not 
because  they  were  counted  out,  but  for  the  same  reason  that 
many  white  people  do  not  vote  in  Brooklyn ;  they  had  be- 
come indifferent  to  it ;  they  had  discovered  that  the  ballot 
did  not  pay  their  mortgage  or  increase  their  crop.  A  good 
many  of  the  colored  men  with  whom  I  talked,  especially  the 
better  educated,  were  confident  that  their  people  will  have 
their  political  rights  as  soon  as  they  are  sufficiently  educated 
to  exercise  them.  The  division  of  the  white  vote  and  the  di- 
vision of  the  colored  vote  in  local  elections  has  taken  place 
in  some  Southern  cities  with  the  result  of  bringing  out  the 
full  vote  on  both  sides.  There  has  been  a  fusion  of  the  black 
and  white  votes  in  the  result.  Thus  in  some  districts  whites 
and  blacks  have  united  to  elect  a  white  or  black  candidate. 
The  question  of  political  rights  will  be  settled  with  the 
growth  of  the  Negro  and  the  growth  of  the  white  man. 


334  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

On  no  subject  was  I  at  more  pains  to  get  evidence  all 
through  the  South  than  this  concerning  the  relations  of 
the  two  races.  In  all  the  colored  conferences  I  held,  the 
general  testimony  was  of  the  improved  state  of  feeling.  This 
is  supplemented  by  important  testimony  I  have  received  in 
the  last  few  weeks  from  principals  and  presidents  of  col- 
ored colleges.  I  regret  that  there  is  not  time  to  present 
this  evidence  in  detail.  Out  of  twenty-eight  answers  on 
this  subject  from  all  parts  of  the  South,  only  five  were 
doubtful  concerning  the  improved  relationship.  The  other 
twenty-three  gave  clear  and  positive  testimony.  Prof. 
Booker  T.  Washington,  of  Tuskegee,  Ala.,  one  of  the  ablest 
colored  men  of  the  South,  says :  "  I  consider  that  the  rela- 
tions between  the  colored  and  white  people  are  growing 
more  friendly  from  year  to  year.  At  present  there  is  a  large 

Eroportion  of  the  best  class  of  white  people  who  are  now  in 
ivor  of  educating  the  colored  people.  This  was  not  so  a 
few  years  ago ;  and  the  number  in  favor  of  educating  the 
colored  people  is  growing.  It  is  now  not  infrequent  that 
individuals  are  found  willing  to  co-operate  in  and  to  con- 
tribute to  the  education  of  the  people.  For  example,  a  man 
in  Lowndes  County,  Ala.,  has  recently  given  ten  acres  of 
land  to  start  a  school.  I  could  give  other  examples  to  illus- 
trate this  fact."  Other  colored  men  testify  to  the  same 
effect. 

No  Southern  white  man  is  a  greater  friend  of  the  Negro 
than  Bishop  Haygood,  and  no  one  more  thoroughly  under- 
stands the  attitude  of  the  Southern  white  people.  Con- 
cerning this  he  says :  "  History  records  no  instance  more 
remarkable  than  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  and  are 
now  going  on  in  the  minds  of  the  Southern  people." 

Of  almost  equal  unanimity  is  the  testimony  of  this  body 
of  educators  concerning  the  true  solution  of  the  whole  prob- 
lem. With  hardly  an  exception,  they  find  it  in  the  great 
forces  of  moral,  intellectual,  and  industrial,  education.  The 
same  forces  of  evolution  that  have  brought  the  colored  man 
where  he  is  are  bound  to  take  him  further.  They  will  take 
the  white  man  along  with  him. 

I  have  spoken  to  you  of  the  evolution  of  the  colored  man ; 
but  we  must  not  forget  that  another  chapter  could  be  writ- 
ten on  the  remarkable  evolution  of  the  white  man.  When 
down  in  the  heart  of  Alabama  I  conversed  with  one  of  the 
leading  physicians  of  the  State.  I  found  him  to  be  a  strong 
believer  in  the  philosophy  of  Herbert  Spencer.  "  We  have 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  335 

passed,"  he  said,  "  through  one  stage  of  evolution.  Slavery 
was  wrong.  We  did  not  know  it  then ;  we  do  know  it  now. 
A  generation  hence  will  find  us  further  than  we  are  now." 

One  of  the  most  potent  influences  in  bringing  about  a 
better  feeling  between  the  races  is  the  business  and  indus- 
trial relations  which  are  established  between  them.  On 
the  very  day  on  which  I  was  in  a  certain  Alabama  town  a 
meeting  held  to  keep  down  the  colored  vote  was  defeated 
by  the  white  men  of  the  place,  whose  business  relations 
with  the  colored  people  rendered  such  a  step  inexpedient. 

Another  important  element  in  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem is  the  fact  that  the  Southern  white  man  has  no  personal 
prejudice  against  the  Negro.  The  prejudice  that  exists  is 
conventional  and  social.  The  association  of  the  two  races 
has  been  intimate.  I  have  been  struck  with  the  personal 
affection  which  Southern  white  men  have  entertained  for 
the  colored  "  aunties  "  who  had  nursed  them  under  the  old 
regime.  At  the  North,  though  the  Negro  has  his  legal 
rights,  he  is  not  brought  into  such  close  relationship  with 
the  whites  as  in  the  South.  No  Southern  white  boy  six 
years  of  age  would  ask  the  question  which  a  little  boy  asked 
when  he  first  saw  some  colored  waiters  on  the  Hudson  Eiver 
boat — "  Won't  the  black  rub  off  on  the  dishes  ?  " 

The  color  lines  drawn  at  the  South  are  arbitrary  and  con- 
ventional. They  are  rigid  social  lines,  such  as  in  the  army 
separate  officers  and  men.  They  are  caste  lines,  but  they 
are  not  personal  lines.  As  a  colored  man  in  Virginia  said 
to  me  :  "  As  soon  as  a  colored  man  gets  land  and  a  horse  and 
a  wagon  he  gets  something  that  white  people  want.  The 
white  man  will  not  allow  the  colored  man  to  come  in  and 
eat  breakfast  with  his  family,  but  if  the  colored  man  has  a 
home  and  a  horse  and  wagon,  or  something  of  that  kind,  the 
white  man  might  come  in  his  house  and  eat  breakfast  with 
him;  it  depends  upon  what  the  man  is." 

During  the  excitement  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  an  in- 
sane man  said  to  a  friend  of  mine  :  "Do  not  be  troubled ;  I 
have  discovered  a  remedy  for  the  whole  matter.  I  have 
ordered  2,000  buckets  of  whitewash  and  2,000  brushes,  and 
I  mean  to  whitewash  the  colored  race  and  avert  the  war." 
This  original  prescription  would  have  changed  the  Negro's 
skin  without  changing  his  blood,  but  the  forces  which  are 
at  work  now  are  working  from  within  outward  ;  they  are 
changing  the  white  man  and  they  are  changing  the  Negro. 

The  main  difficulties  in  the  future  are  to  come  between 


336  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

the  poor  and  ignorant  white  and  the  ignorant  Negro.  The 
intelligent  and  refined  men  of  both  races  will  get  on  together. 
The  colored  people  are  developing  more  race  pride ;  they 
are  not  asking  for  social  equality.  This  is  something  that 
must  be  left  to  settle  itself.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
there  are  vast  numbers  whose  interest  in  both  races  is  about 
equally  divided.  A  witty  orator  in  the  South,  a  mulatto,  in 
addressing  an  audience,  said  :  "  You  talk  about  the  race  ques- 
tion [then  pointing  to  himself]  ;  there  is  no  conflict  between 
us ;  we  are  both  here ;  we  get  on  perfectly  well  together." 
Whether  amalgamation  is  to  be  the  solution  or  not  I  will 
not  affirm.  But  I  believe  the  two  races  will  eventually  get 
on  perfectly  well  together  whether  they  are  blended  in  one 
person  or  race,  or  separated  in  two.  Were  the  intermarriage 
of  the  races  permitted,  there  would  be  many  happy  mar- 
riages where  now  there  are  illegal  relations. 

The  mass  of  facts  I  have  gathered  on  this  problem  would 
fill  a  large  volume.  I  have  only  given  an  outline  of  the 
conclusions  to  which  they  point.  Much  needs  to  be  done 
for  the  colored  American,  and  much  needs  to  be  done  for 
his  poor  white  brother.  But  the  colored  American  is  rec- 
ognizing, what  does  not  seem  to  be  so  evident  to  the  poor 
white,  that  his  destiny  is  largely  in  his  own  hands.  This  is 
the  burden  of  the  exhortation  of  the  colored  leaders  to  their 
people. 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  337 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  T.  McCA>TTS  STEWART,  the  well-known  colored  lawyer  and  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Education,  led  in  the  discussion  that  followed. 
He  said : 

The  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association  is  doing  much  good  in  stimulat- 
ing thought  and  fixing  attention  upon  vital  questions  affecting  the 
best  interests  of  the  people  everywhere.  Important  as  are  the  sub- 
jects contained  in  this  year's  course  of  study,  none  is  more  important 
than  the  race  problem  which  is  before  us.  In  preparing  to  open  this 
discussion  I  was,  unfortunately,  without  a  copy  of  the  paper  just  read 
by  Dr.  Barrows.  I  did  not  want  to  come  here  to  talk  entirely  offhand 
and  on  general  principles ;  hence  I  had  to  confine  myself  to  the  out- 
lines of  this  subject  appearing  in  your  elaborate  programme-pam- 
phlet, which  shows  what  the  discussion  is  to  cover ;  and  now  I  quote  its 
words :  "  The  bequest  of  slavery  to  the  American  nation.  Ethnologi- 
cal, climatic,  and  economic  aspects  of  the  problem.  The  Negro  in 
Africa  and  elsewhere.  What  sociology  says  as  to  his  suitable  Ameri- 
can habitat.  His  capacity  for  ethical  and  intellectual  culture.  His 
true  relations  to  the  American  Republic.  The  question  viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  evolutionary  sociology."  Being  limited  for  time,  I 
can  not  discuss  the  questions  at  issue  with  satisfaction  even  to  myself ; 
but  I  shall  aim  in  the  course  of  a  few  minutes  to  state  some  views 
which  may  lead  to  investigation  on  your  part,  perhaps  to  discussion 
now,  or  at  the  next  meeting.  We  start  with  the  assumption  that  no 
one  who  accepts  the  Bible  as  inspired,  or,  as  historic  authority,  be- 
lieves that  the  Negro  is  in  the  world  by  special  creation  ;  that  he  is  not, 
like  the  other  races,  a  descendant  of  Noah.  You  believe,  do  you  not, 
that  out  of  one  blood  God  created  all  nations  to  dwell  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth?  I  assume  that  you  do  and  consider  the  point  res  adju- 
dicata.  Upon  another  point,  the  ethnographic  account  contained  in 
the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis  is  reliable,  and  it  is  invaluable  in  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  negro  problem.  Rawlinson  said  of  this  chapter :  "  The 
Toldoth  Beni  Noah  is  undoubtedly  the  most  authentic  record  we  pos- 
sess for  the  affiliation  of  those  branches  of  the  human  race  which 
sprang  from  the  triple  stock  of  the  Noachidae.  We  must  be  cautious 
in  drawing  direct  ethnological  inferences  from  the  linguistic  indica- 
tions of  a  very  early  age.  It  would  be  far  safer,  at  any  rate,  in  these 
early  times,  to  follow  the  general  scheme  of  ethnic  affiliation  which  is 


338  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

given  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis."  Now,  if  we  accept  Moses  as  a 
reliable  ethnographist,  it  is  clearly  established  that  in  earliest  historic 
times,  when  Japhet  and  Shem  were  inactive,  Gush,  the  eldest  son  of 
Ham,  the  Negro's  fons  et  origo,  was  building  cities  and  establishing 
kingdoms.  At  the  dispersion  of  the  races  from  the  plains  of  Shinar, 
the  sons  of  Ham  went  down  into  Africa  and  founded  Ethiopia  and 
Egypt.  "Were  they  black,  real  Negroes'?  Why,  certainly.  Perhaps 
many  of  you  say,  No ;  and  you  are  not  without  authorities ;  but  remem- 
ber that  white  men,  often  unconsciously  influenced  by  prejudice,  wrote 
the  Negro,  with  black  skin  and  woolly  hair,  out  of  his  true  place  in 
ancient  history.  Your  scholars  were  both  judge  and  jury.  We  were 
often  the  victims  of  lynch  law.  A  Negro  scholar,  Dr.  Martin  R.  De- 
laney,  in  a  work  published  ten  years  ago,  called  The  Origin  of  Races 
and  Color,  contended  that  the  entire  human  race  was  originally  of  a 
dark  complexion ;  that  the  word  Adam  signifies  dark,  as  the  word 
Ham  signifies  the  same  thing.  Dr.  Boisgilbert  (Ignatius  Donnelly), 
in  his  recent  interesting  book,  Doctor  Huguet.  advances  the  same 
view.  But  even  if  you  do  not  concede  that  the  entire  human  race  was 
originally  of  a  dark  complexion,  it  can  not  be  successfully  disputed 
that  the  Hamites  were  a  dark  people,  for  both  of  the  words  Ham  and 
Ethiopia  signify,  etymologically,  swarthy,  burnt,  dark.  Was  the  an- 
cient Negro  woolly  haired  I  Well,  some  say,  No.  I  have  read  of  a  man 
who  said,  Yes ;  and  who,  in  a  meeting  like  this,  argued  from  that  fact, 
that  the  Negro  is  of  entirely  different  origin  from  the  white  man,  who 
has  straight  hair  and  not  wool.  A  colored  man  opened  the  discussion 
and  brushed  his  opponent  aside  with  the  remark  :  "  One  thing  I  am 
sure  is  clear,  that  God  put  the  wool  on  the  outside  of  the  Negro's 
head,  but  on  the  inside  of  the  head  of  the  gentleman  who  preceded 
me."  I  read  of  a  Southern  colored  preacher  who  said :  "  Yes,  the 
Negro's  hair  from  the  beginning  of  creation  was  always  woolly,"  and 
upon  this  statement  he  sought  to  impress  upon  his  hearers  the  doctrine, 
that  the  woolly  hair  marked  the  Negro  as  God's  chosen  people,  elected 
and  preordained  for  his  glory,  and  that,  at  the  last  day,  the  Negro  race 
would  be  the  only  people  saved.  "  God,"  said  this  ignorant  colored 
preacher,  "  would  divide  de  sheep,  we  Negroes  wid  de  woolly  hair,  from 
de  goats,  which  am  de  white  man  wid  de  straight  hair,  an'  recebe  us 
into  eberlasting  glory."  But,  to  be  again  serious,  Herodotus,  who 
traveled  in  Africa  and  made  personal  investigations  of  the  land  and 
people,  declares  that  the  Ethiopians  were  of  black  complexion  and 
woolly  hair.  Rawlinson  says  that  this  fact  is  confirmed  by  archaeolog- 
ical and  philological  researches.  I  have  dwelt  upon  these  matters  be- 
cause they  are  too  often  overlooked  in  racial  discussions  and  in  deal- 
ing with  the  modern  and  present  Negro  problem.  Knowing  that  Dr. 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric-American.  339 

Barrows  holds  liberal  views  concerning  the  Negro,  and  anticipating 
from  him  an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  subject  in  its  present  practi- 
cal bearings,  and  expecting  that  he  would  suggest  remedies  for  exist- 
ing evils,  which  thoughtful  people  everywhere  deplore,  I  prepared  to 
go  back  somewhat  to  first  principles,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  consid- 
ered scholastic  and  as  dealing  with  matters  of  no  practical  interest. 
Let  us  briefly  inquire  if  the  present  central  tropical  African  Negroes 
are  the  descendants  of  the  people  who  led  the  world  and  were  the 
pioneers  of  mankind  in  the  various  untrodden  fields  of  art,  literature, 
and  science.  I  answer,  Certainly  they  were.  Prof.  Owen,  in  his  fifth 
edition  of  Homer's  Odyssey,  gives  this  note  from  Prof.  Lewis,  of 
the  New  York  University,  in  reference  to  the  localities  to  which  Ho- 
mer's Ethiopians  should  be  assigned  :  "  I  have  always,  in  comment- 
ing on  the  passage  to  which  you  refer,  explained  it  to  my  class  as 
denoting  the  black  race  (or  Ethiopians,  as  they  were  called  in  Homer's 
time),  living  on  the  eastern  and  western  coast  of  Africa — the  one  class 
inhabiting  the  country  now  called  Abyssinia,  and  the  other  that  part 
of  Africa  called  Guinea  or  the  Slave  Coast."  A  writer  in  the  Prince- 
ton Review  says:  "The  Ethiopian  race,  from  whom  the  modern 
Negro  or  African  stock  are  undoubtedly  descended,  can  claim  as  early 
a  history,  with  the  exception  of  the  Jews,  as  any  living  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  History,  as  well  as  the  monumental  discoveries, 
gives  them  a  place  in  ancient  history  as  far  back  as  Egypt  herself,  if 
not  further."  Other  authorities  could  be  cited.  What,  if  my  conten- 
tion is  true,  ails  the  central  tropical  African  Negroes  of  to-day,  who 
are  so  far  behind  the  other  races  in  civilization  and  from  whom  the 
colored  people  of  America  are  undoubtedly  descended  1  I  will  tell 
you.  First,  man  has  never  amounted  to  anything  in  extreme  heat  or 
extreme  cold.  The  Esquimaux  and  the  Guinea  Negro  are  alike  the 
victims  of  an  unfavorable  habitat ;  one  is  subjected  to  too  much  cold 
and  the  other  to  too  much  heat  and  malaria.  Both  stunt  the  mind. 
For  centuries  climate  has  been  against  the  Negro.  Dr.  Boisgilbert 
(Ignatius  Donnelly)  says  that  Nature,  in  order  to  protect  the  central 
tropical  African  Negro's  brain  from  the  sun,  thickened  the  cranium, 
contracted  the  brain,  and  thus  caused  mental  deterioration.  The  white 
Southerner  will  never  be  the  equal  of  the  white  Northerner  in  intelli- 
gence, vigor,  acumen,  productiveness.  Put  a  New  Englander  under 
the  torrid  sun  of  Florida  and  Louisiana,  and  in  their  swamps  and 
under  the  effect  of  climate  and  the  laws  of  heredity  and  evolution  his 
children  will  degenerate  and  become  inferior  to  his  brother's  descend- 
ants whose  habitat  is  around  Boston  and  Springfield  and  Providence 
and  New  Haven,  or  in  the  far  West  under  a  stimulating  climate.  Sec- 
ond, migrating  from  northern  down  into  central  tropical  Africa,  the 


340  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

Negroes  cut  themselves  off  from  civilization,  and  that  in  itself  was 
enough  to  cause  degeneracy.  Experiments  in  natural  history  show 
that  if  irrational  animals  are  excluded  from  contact  with  their  kind 
and  bred  alone  they  will  develop  radical  differences  from  the  parent 
or  original  stock.  I  have  read  that  there  are  certain  districts  in  Lei- 
trim,  Sligo,  and  Mayo,  in  Ireland,  chiefly  inhabited  by  the  descend- 
ants of  the  native  Irish,  driven  by  the  British  from  Armagh  and  the 
south  of  Down  about  two  centuries  ago.  These  people,  whose  an- 
cestors were  well  grown,  able-bodied,  and  comely,  are  now  reduced  in 
stature,  are  bow-legged  and  abortively  featured,  and  theykare  especially 
remarkable  for  open,  projecting  mouths,  and  prominent  teeth  and  ex- 
posed gums,  their  advancing  cheek  bones  and  depressed  noses  bearing 
barbarism  in  their  very  front.  In  other  words,  within  so  short  a 
period,  they  seemed  to  have  acquired  a  prognathous  type  of  skull,  like 
the  Australian  savages.  Mahew,  in  a  book  called  London  Labor  and 
Poor,  says  that  the  poorest  people  of  London,  especially  those  that 
partake  of  a  pure  vagabond  nature,  doing  nothing  whatever  for  their 
living  but  moving  from  place  to  place,  preying  on  the  earning 
of  the  more  industrious,  have  high  cheek  bones  and  protruding 
jaws  like  the  Malayo-Polynesian  races.  Finally,  so  far  as  my  ex- 
planation of  Negro  degeneracy  goes,  remember,  that  for  centuries  the 
Negroes  of  central  tropical  Africa  have  been  the  victims  of  the  cupidity 
and  inhumanity  of  the  white  race.  Peaceful  villages  have  been  raided, 
robbed  of  their  inhabitants,  and  destroyed.  The  milestones  for  ages 
have  been,  even  as  Stanley  found  them,  the  bleaching  carcasses  of  men, 
women,  and  children  murdered  because  they  were  too  feeble  to  go  along 
with  their  white  brother  who  stole  them  to  enslave  them,  to  sell  them 
for  gold.  Good  heavens  !  when  we  think  of  what  Africa  has  suffered 
in  these  Christian  centuries  from  the  slave  trade  and  the  rum  traffic, 
we  have  all  the  explanations  we  need  of  the  degeneracy  of  its  people, 
and  looking  to  climatic  and  other  agencies  seems  to  be  hollow  mock- 
ery. "We  blush  as  we  note  what  Montgomery  says : 

"  Freighted  with  curses  was  the  bark  that  bore 
The  spoilers  of  the  West  to  Guinea's  shore  ; 
Heavy  with  groans  of  anguish  blew  the  gales 
That  swelled  that  fatal  bark's  returning  sails  ; 
Loud  and  perpetual  o'er  the  Atlantic's  waves, 
For  guilty  ages  rolled  the  tide  of  slaves  ; 
A  tide  that  knew  no  fall,  no  turn,  no  rest- 
Constant  as  day  and  night  from  East  to  West, 
Still  widening,  deepening,  swelling  in  its  course, 
With  boundless  ruin  and  resistless  force." 

Foote  says :  "  The  Negro  arts  are  respectable  (and  he  is  here  refer- 
ring to  the  Negroes  now  living  in  central  tropical  Africa),  and  would 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  341 

have  been  more  so  had  not  disturbance  and  waste  come  with  the  slave 
trade."  Five  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  Portuguese  explorers  dis- 
covered the  west  coast  of  Africa,  they  found  the  Negroes  in  compara- 
tive peace,  comfort,  and  prosperity.  There  were  well-laid-out  towns, 
though  rude  and  small,  cultivated  fields,  flocks  upon  the  hillside,  and 
the  forge  and  the  loom  broke  the  stillness  of  the  forests.  The  Negroes 
were  in  about  the  same  condition  as  were  the  European  tribes  in  the 
early  centuries.  Certainly  the  Negroes  were  in  better  condition  than 
were  the  Britons  when  the  Romans  raided  their  country.  The  Ne- 
groes, whom  the  Portuguese  discovered  and  whose  descendants  are 
under  discussion  to-night,  were  fit  for  slaves.  When  the  Romans 
found  the  Britons  and  took  them  home  they  were  a  drug  even  in  the 
slave  market  because  of  their  stupidity.  At  least  the  proud  Romans 
said  that  they  were  too  dull  to  learn.  Cicero,  in  writing  to  Atticus, 
holds  this  language  concerning  the  ancestors  of  the  white  Americans  : 
"  Neque  ullam  spem  praedae  nisi  ex  mancipii,  ex  quibus  nullos  puto  te 
litteris,  aut  musicis  erudites  exspectare."  I  have  no  patience  with  those 
who  declare  that  slavery  was  intended  of  God  to  elevate  the  Negro. 
Slavery  has  not  been  a  blessing  ;  it  has  been  a  curse.  It  demoralized 
and  degraded  the  Africans  in  Africa,  and  it  robbed  the  American 
Negro  of  his  manhood  and  left  him  poor  indeed.  The  Negroes  in  the 
United  States  have  profited  from  slavery  so  far  as  imbibing  some  of 
the  elements  of  Caucasian  civilization  ;  but  in  so  far  as  that  civilization 
has  robbed  him  of  his  manhood,  it  has  been  hurtful  and  it  places  him 
beneath  the  Negro  in  Africa.  The  African  Negroes  are  not  universally 
the  degraded  beings  that  we  too  often  and  generally  think  they  are. 
Take  the  Veys,  for  example.  They  are  barbarians,  or  heathen,  or  sav- 
ages magis  natione  quam  ratione.  In  what  makes  manly  character,  in 
what  makes  intellectual  strength,  the  Veys  rank  with  any  people.  They 
have  invented  their  own  alphabet,  constructed  their  own  written  as 
well  as  spoken  language,  and  they  are  slowly  creating  a  literature. 
They  use  a  pen  and  an  indelible  ink  that  they  make  themselves.  I 
admire  the  Mandingoes  of  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  because  they  are 
learned  in  the  Koran  and  other  Arabic  writings  ;  but  their  literature 
is  borrowed.  I  go  into  inexpressible  enthusiasm  over  the  Veys,  because 
they  have  invented  a  language.  My  impression  is,  that,  taken  as  a 
whole,  these  African  Negroes  are  superior  to  the  average  American 
Negroes  who  have  been  crushed  by  the  monster  slavery.  But  I  do  not 
think  that  there  is  any  occasion  for  wonder  or  surprise  at  these  state- 
ments. Remember  that  Theodore  Dwight  says,  in  an  article  in  the 
Methodist  Quarterly  Review  for  1869,  that  between  1770-75  a  re- 
port reached  England  that  a  young  African  slave  in  Maryland  could 
read  and  write  Arabic,  and  was  well  versed  in  Arabic  literature.  His 


342  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

name  was  Job-ben-Solomon.  He  was  released,  sent  to  England,  and 
there  assisted  Sir  Hans  Sloan,  the  able  scholar  and  founder  of  the  Brit- 
ish museum,  in  translating  several  Arabic  works.  Now,  I  have  en- 
deavored to  make  the  races  of  one  common  origin,  to  show  that  black- 
faced  and  woolly-haired  people  gave  the  world  its  earliest  civilization, 
that  from  these  people  the  present  Negroes  now  dwelling  in  central 
tropical  Africa  have  descended,  and  their  present  degeneracy  is  the 
result  of  climate  and  other  causes.  Many  white  and  all  colored  people 
agree  with  my  conclusions  ;  and  those  of  us  who  hold  such  views  see 
no  inherent  difficulties  in  the  Negro  problem  as  we  have  it  in  the  South 
land.  The  Negroes  in  the  United  States  are  not  ethnologically  the 
same  as  the  Negroes  in  Africa.  There  is  a  more  general  admixture  of 
blood  than  we  commonly  think ;  and  then,  too,  climate  and  food  have 
produced  differentiations.  "  The  man  without  a  race  "  is  a  character- 
ization which  may  be  applied  very  generally  to  the  Negroes  in  the 
United  States,  and,  recognizing  this  difference  between  the  Negroes  of 
Africa  and  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States,  we  have  a  term  which  one 
of  our  leading  writers,  Mr.  T.  Thomas  Fortune,  the  editor  of  the  New 
York  Age,  has  brought  into  very  general  use  and  which  we  apply 
to  ourselves.  It  is  Afro- American.  My  references  hereafter  to  the 
American  Negro  will  be  under  that  term.  The  capacity  of  the  Afro- 
Americans  for  ethical  and  intellectual  culture  (I  quote  your  pro- 
gramme) is  beyond  question.  No  race  is  a  better  subject  for  develop- 
ment on  the  moral  side.  They  are  not  avaricious  or  bloodthirsty.  In- 
deed, of  all  the  races,  they  possess  fewest  of  those  traits  that  conflict 
with  the  Ten  Commandments,  which  are  the  epitome  of  the  highest 
morality  possible  in  man.  Why,  only  a  year  or  two  ago  this  record 
was  made  by  Afro-Americans,  excelling  the  brightest  minds  of  the 
white  race :  Minton  was  class  orator  at  Phillips  Academy  in  1891 ; 
Handy  was  class  orator  of  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  same 
year ;  Du  Bois  won  the  Boylston  prize  for  scholarship  at  Harvard  in 
1890 ;  the  best  man  at  Cornell  the  same  year  was  a  colored  man ;  and 
a  black  young  man,  Clement  G.  Morgan,  was  in  1890  class  orator  at 
Harvard.  And  these  are  not  monstrosities,  exceptional  cases,  which 
signify  nothing.  They  are  typical  of  the  progress  Afro-Americans  are 
making  throughout  the  country.  Though  handicapped  in  many  ways, 
we  are  keeping  step  with  our  brother  in  white  wherever  the  conditions 
are  favorable.  It  is  generally  conceded  that  Afro- Americans  are  pro- 
gressing everywhere.  Even  the  most  prejudiced  white  men  of  the 
South  admit  the  fact,  though  they  often  do  so  with  a  qualification. 
Indeed,  some  of  them  voluntarily  proclaim  it,  and  say  this  very  progress 
on  the  part  of  the  colored  people  makes  the  situation  serious,  creates 
an  important  problem,  for  these  people  will  in  time  become  on 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric-American.  343 

general  principles,  our  equals,  and  then  these  Southerners  ask,  and  it 
is  often  a  serious  question  with  some  Northerners,  Can  the  two  races 
live  together  harmoniously  as  equals  ?  That  is  the  practical  question 
which  you  are  considering  now  and  which  is  down  for  your  next  meet- 
ing, It  is  contended  by  some  that  Afro- Americans  should  not  remain 
in  this  country ;  that  they  were  brought  here  by  force  and  that  it  is 
not  their  natural  habitat ;  that  God  created  them  for  Africa  and  that 
they  should  return  there  and  develop  themselves  in  a  climate  for  which 
God  intended  them.  I  smile  at  that  kind  of  argument.  Why,  God 
never  created  the  Negro  in  Africa.  He  was  created  in  Adam  and  Noah 
in  Asia.  So  if  there  is  to  be  an  exodus,  it  should  be  to  the  land  of  the 
Japs  and  the  olive-eyed  Chinese.  But  even  if  God  did  create  the 
Negroes  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Nile,  he  did  not  create  the  Aryan 
race  here  in  the  United  States,  nor  the  Jew,  nor  the  Chinese.  If,  then, 
Afro-Americans  should  return  whence  their  ancestors  were  created, 
why  should  not  the  white  people  go  back  where  they  came  from  ?  But 
if  the  Negro,  as  you  call  us,  is  to  go  to  Africa  to  get  in  a  natural  cli- 
mate, what  is  the  objection  to  settling  us  in  Florida  and  Louisiana  and 
other  parts  of  the  South  land  where  the  climate  and  physical  condi- 
tions are  similar  to  Africa  f  But,  pshaw !  this  deportation  of  Afro- 
Americans  is  pure  nonsense.  Speaking  through  me,  they  tell  you  that 
they  do  not  want  to  go  out  of  this  country  and  back  to  Africa,  and, 
more,  that  they  will  not  go ;  that  they  are  here  to  stay.  To  remove 
them  under  the  circumstances,  and  with  this  spirit  on  their  part,  is 
absolutely  impossible.  What  matters  it  how  they  came  here  f  Many 
of  the  early  settlers  of  this  republic  were  sent  here  into  involuntary 
and  often  penal  banishment.  They  did  not  want  to  come  when  they 
were  sent  under  vagrant  and  debtors'  laws ;  and  when  here,  they  were 
held  in  bondage.  Eggleston,  in  his  History  of  the  United  States  and 
Its  People,  says :  "  During  the  time  of  their  bondage  they  could  be 
bought  and  sold  like  slaves."  So,  if  you  want  to  get  at  the  descend- 
ants of  people  who  were  brought  here  against  their  will  to  send  them 
away  because  they  have  no  right  here,  you  will  have  to  deport  many 
white  people,  especially  from  proud  old  Virginia  and  Georgia.  It  seems 
to  me  to  be  foolish  and  inexcusable  to  be  constantly  discussing  make- 
shifts in  connection  with  such  an  important  matter  as  what  you  call  the 
Negro  problem.  There  is  no  Negro  problem  in  the  North.  There  is  a 
Negro  problem  in  the  South,  and  the  solution  of  it  depends  upon  time, 
educat  ion,  evolution.  There  is  very  little  trouble  now  except,  mainly, 
in  polit  it-s,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  public  rights.  So  far  as  politics  is 
concerned,  there  should  be  an  educational  or  property  qualification,  or 
both,  applicable  to  all  races  alike.  As  to  the  enjoyment  of  public 
rights  on  public  conveyances  and  in  public  places  existing  under  pub- 
23 


344  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American. 

lie  license  or  supported  by  public  funds,  the  white  South  should  act 
upon  the  principle  that  a  colored  man  is  as  good  as  a  white  man — even 
if  they  put  in,  "  if  he  behaves  himself,"  as  some  of  our  friends  at  the 
North  do.  There  is  no  remedy,  there  is  no  solution  for  the  race  prob- 
lem in  the  South,  outside  of  the  Bible,  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  To  these  we  must  re- 
sort, and  by  the  rules  laid  down  in  these  we  must  work,  and  as  reason- 
able men,  considering  the  limitations  of  human  nature,  its  imperfec- 
tions and  its  weaknesses,  we  should  work  patiently  together  upon  this 
important  problem,  and  until  we  have  settled  and  removed  it.  Be  as- 
sured that  this  problem  will  confront  us  until  Afro-Americans  shall 
have  been  subjected  to  generations  of  intellectual  and  ethical  evolu- 
tion, and  until  the  white  race  get  Christianity  enough  to  eradicate 
their  race  pride  and  exclusiveness,  and  democracy  enough  to  practi- 
cally subscribe  to  what  Abraham  Lincoln  said  this  country  is — "  a  land 
where  every  man  has  a  right  to  be  equal  with  every  other  man." 

MR,  T.  THOMAS  FORTUNE  : 

Being  unexpectedly  invited  by  the  president,  Mr.  Fortune  said  :  I 
had  not  the  remotest  idea  of  saying  anything  this  evening.  I  think 
on  the  historical  side  of  the  question  Mr.  Stewart  has  indicated  fully 
our  position ;  and  Dr.  Barrows  has  placed  the  situation  in  the  South 
before  you  just  as  it  is.  I  am  very  sure  the  slow  processes  of  evolu- 
tion— judging  by  the  indisputable  evidences  to  be  seen  in  the  South, 
as  applied  to  both  white  and  black — will  ultimately  work  out  the  same 
result  as  in  the  mingling  of  any  two  European  nations  on  Manhattan 
or  Long  Island.  I  thank  you  for  the  opportunity  to  say  these  few 
words. 

MR.  BARROWS,  in  closing:  I  thank  the  speakers  for  their  warm 
commendation  of  the  lecture.  The  milder  elements  in  the  character 
of  the  Afric- American  have  force  in  the  solution  of  this  question. 
Take  this  fact  for  illustration :  An  able  colored  gentleman  in  a  South- 
ern city  bought  a  lot  of  land  alongside  of  the  lot  of  a  white  man. 
The  white  man  was  very  angry,  used  bad  language,  and  wanted  to 
buy  the  colored  man's  lot ;  but  the  colored  man  refused  to  sell.  The 
colored  man  began  improving  his  lot ;  then  he  put  up  a  house  about 
as  good  as  that  of  his  white  neighbor.  One  day  the  white  man  strayed 
in  to  see  what  was  going  on.  The  colored  man  said  he  wanted  to  have 
things  nice,  and  hoped  he  wouldn't  be  a  nuisance.  The  white  man 
became  interested,  and  made  suggestions  about  the  house.  After  a 
while  the  question  of  a  fence  between  the  lots  came  up.  The  white 
man  said :  "  I  suppose  we've  got  to  have  a  fence,  but  let  it  be  a  low 


The  Evolution  of  the  Afric- American.  345 

one — just  enough  to  mark  off  the  lots."  By  and  by  the  black  woman 
and  the  white  woman  were  talking  together  over  the  fence,  as  women 
will.  One  night  the  colored  man  came  home  and  noticed  some  strange- 
looking  bread  on  the  table ;  his  wife  told  him  to  guess  where  it  came 
from.  He  guessed  all  his  colored  neighbors,  but  was  told  that  his 
white  neighbor  sent  it.  Then  the  colored  man  raised  some  fine  toma- 
toes, and  sent  some  in  to  the  white  man.  His  children  had  the  usual 
children's  ailments,  and  the  white  woman  came  in  to  make  suggest- 
ions and  give  advice  out  of  her  larger  experience.  All  of  which  shows 
that  it  is  quite  possible  for  the  two  races  to  live  together.  Of  course 
there  was  no  "  social  equality,"  oh,  no  ! — but  brown  bread  and  toma- 
toes had  done  what  the  ballot  and  bullet  could  not  do. 

I  know  of  another  case  where  a  white  man  had  a  stable  adjoining 
a  colored  man's  house.  Finding  the  colored  family  to  be  decent  and 
respectable,  and  fearing  the  stable  would  be  a  nuisance,  he  voluntarily 
removed  it. 

In  Boston  there  was  a  family  which  received  assistance  from  the 
Associated  Charities — an  Irish  woman  with  a  drunken  husband,  who 
lived  in  the  basement  of  a  house  owned  by  a  Jew.  In  the  upper  part 
of  the  house  was  a  colored  family — Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet  all  to- 
gether. I  heard  once  that  the  Irish  woman  couldn't  pay  her  rent,  and 
went  down  to  see  about  it.  The  Jew  had  said  the  Irish  family  must 
go  out,  but  the  colored  woman  said :  "  No ;  I'll  pay  the  rent,"  and  she 
gave  the  Irish  woman  some  of  her  washing.  Then  I  thought  of  the 
outrages  against  the  colored  people  here  in  New  York  during  the  war, 
and  thanked  God  that  the  colored  people  are  forgiving.  It  is  this 
spirit  of  peace  and  good  will  more  than  that  of  hate  and  war  which  will 
give  them  the  victory. 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM 
IN  THE  SOUTH 


BY 

JOSEPH  LE  CONTE,  LL.  D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  FOB  THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE 
AUTHOR  OF  EVOLUTION  AS  RELATED  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Williams's  History  of  the  Colored  Race  in  America ;  Brackett's  The 
Negro  in  Maryland,  and  Notes  on  the  Progress  of  the  Colored  People ; 
Fortune's  Black  and  White ;  Cable's  The  Negro  Question,  and  The 
Silent  South ;  Mayo's  Third  Estate  at  the  South ;  Grady's  In  Plain 
Black  and  White,  in  Century,  April,  1888 ;  Bruce's  The  Plantation 
Negro  as  a  Freeman ;  Blair's  The  Prosperity  of  the  South  Dependent 
on  the  Elevation  of  the  Negro ;  Godkin's  The  Republican  Party  and 
the  Negro,  in  Forum,  May,  1889 ;  Stetson's  Problem  of  Negro  Educa- 
tion ;  Census  Statistics  bearing  on  the  Increase  and  Illiteracy  of  the 
Colored  Race ;  Statistics  relating  to  Negro  Labor  in  Southern  Manu- 
factures, in  Chattanooga  Tradesman,  1891. 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

BY  JOSEPH  LE  CONTE,  LL,  D. 
PEKSONAL  KELATION  TO  THE  PBOBLEM. 

ON  a  subject  which  has  been  discussed  with  so  much  pas- 
sion and  from  such  opposite  points  of  view,  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  one  who  undertakes  to  enlighten  others 
should  first  vindicate  his  own  right  to  be  heard  by  showing 
his  opportunities  for  knowing  the  facts  at  first  hand,  and 
also  his  ability  to  form  an  unbiased  judgment.  This  is  my 
excuse  for  bringing  forward  some  points  in  my  own  per- 
sonal history  which  might  otherwise  seem  out  of  place. 

I  was  born  in  1823,  on  a  large  plantation  near  the  coast 
of  Georgia.  Until  approaching  manhood  I  lived  surrounded 
by  at  least  two  hundred  blacks.  In  early  life,  therefore,  I 
knew  no  other  relation  between  whites  and  blacks  than  that 
of  master  and  slave.  My  father  managed  his  plantation 
himself,  and  exercised  authority  with  firmness  and  kind- 
ness. The  property,  which  had  been  inherited  through  sev- 
eral generations,  grew  by  natural  increase  alone,  none  of 
the  slaves,  during  my  recollection,  having  been  either  bought 
or  sold.  Their  moral  and  religious  instruction,  moreover, 
were  carefully  looked  after.  I  have  never  known  a  laboring 
class  more  orderly,  contented,  and  happy.  I  do  not  mean, 
however,  to  deny  the  great  evils  inherent  in  slavery,  but  of 
these  I  became  aware  only  by  wider  experience  at  a  later 
period. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  years  spent  in  completing 
my  medical  and  scientific  education,  I  continued  to  live  at 
the  South  until  1869,  when  I  removed  to  California.  I 
therefore  saw  and  suffered  the  chaos  of  emancipation  and 
reconstruction.  Since  removing  to  California  I  have  sev- 
eral times  returned  and  spent  several  months,  each  time,  at 
the  South.  I  have  watched  with  interest  the  effect  of 
emancipation  on  the  Negro,  and  compared  the  results  of 
slave  labor  and  free  labor. 

So  much  for  opportunities  for  knowing  the  facts.  But 
such  opportunities  often  prejudice  the  mind  and  incapaci- 
tate it  for  unbiased  judgment. '  It  is  necessary,  therefore, 


350  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

to  show  that,  in  some  degree  at  least,  I  have  freed  myself 
from  such  prejudices. 

From  1844,  when  I  came  in  possession  by  inheritance  of 
a  portion  of  the  property  described  above,  until  1865,  when 
the  slaves  were  emancipated,  at  any  time  it  would  have 
been  very  greatly  to  my  advantage  to  have  sold  out  and 
changed  the  form  of  investment.  I  refused  to  do  so  only 
because  I  felt  personally  responsible  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Negroes.  At  any  time  during  the  same  interval  it  would 
have  been  very  greatly  to  my  advantage  to  have  moved  the 
property  westward.  I  refused  this  also  only  because  the 
Negroes  were  attached  to  the  old  place,  and  some  family 
ties  would  have  to  be  broken.  Nor  was  my  own  case  unique. 
Such  sacrifice  of  self-interest  was  common  in  the  South.  It 
is  evident,  therefore,  that  in  proportion  to  the  conscientious- 
ness of  the  owner,  is  this  form  of  property  a  dead  weight  to 
enterprise.  It  is  not  property  in  the  absolute  sense,  nor  was 
it  regarded  as  such.  The  proverbial  lack  of  enterprise  of 
the  Old  South  was  partly  the  result  of  the  large  amount  of 
property  in  this  form,  and  her  conscientiousness  in  the 
treatment  of  it.  It  was  to  her  credit  that  she  was  not  more 
enterprising. 

The  catastrophe  of  the  war  and  the  resulting  emancipa- 
tion of  course  swept  clean  away  everything  I  owned  as  prop- 
erty. The  land  remained — true,  and  still  remains;  but, 
partly  on  account  of  its  situation  and  partly  for  other 
causes  to  be  explained  hereafter,  it  has  never  made  me  a 
cent  from  that  day  to  this.  Yet  this  total  loss  did  not 
cause  me  any  distress.  On  the  contrary,  I  felt  an  inex- 
pressible sense  of  relief  and  almost  joy.  I  mention  these 
facts  to  show  that  I  had  not  even  then  any  strong  prejudice 
in  favor  of  slavery,  nor  was  I  unprepared  to  welcome  eman- 
cipation if  it  had  come  in  the  right  way. 

But  further.  Perhaps  no  one  ever  wholly  frees  himself 
from  the  effects  of  early  influences  and  prejudices ;  but  this 
much  I  can  say  with  confidence :  From  earliest  manhood, 
partly  by  reason  of  inherited  character  and  partly  by  con- 
scious individual  effort,  I  have  set  before  myself  as  the  chief 
end  of  culture  the  purging  of  the  mind  of  every  influence 
that  might  cloud  the  judgment,  that  might  dim  the  clear- 
ness of  intellectual  vision — not  only  on  this,  but  on  all  other 
subjects.  With  this  end  in  view,  while  living  in  New  York 
(1843-'45),  completing  my  medical  education,  and  in  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.  (1850  and  1851),  completing  my  scientific 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  351 

education,  I  lost  no  opportunity  of  discussing  earnestly  but 
dispassionately  the  subject  of  slavery  with  some  of  the  fore- 
most thinkers  of  America.  It  is  true  our  subject  now  is 
not  slavery ;  but  the  close  connection  of  this  question  with 
the  race  problem  is  sufficiently  evident. 

The  audience  will  pardon  me  the  recital  of  these  personal 
details.  It  seemed  to  me  necessary  to  vindicate  my  right 
to  speak  at  all  on  this  subject. 

SCIENTIFIC  METHOD  NECESSAKY. 

Next .  in  importance  to  an  unbiased  mind  is  a  scientific 
method  of  treatment.  There  was  a  time  when  Science  con- 
cerned herself  only  with  material  Nature.  Questions  re- 
lating to  man  in  his  higher  activities,  and  therefore  all 
questions  of  social  organization,  politics,  ethics,  etc.,  were 
regarded  as  hopelessly  beyond  her  domain.  The  phenomena 
involved  in  these  questions  belonged,  it  was  said,  to  a  higher 
order,  and  were  far  too  complex  to  be  reduced  to  law  by  her 
methods.  But  meanwhile  Science,  laying  first  the  founda- 
tions of  rational  knowledge  in  the  simplest  departments, 
has  risen  steadily  higher  and  higher,  reducing  from  chaos 
to  order  more  and  more  complex  subjects,  until  now  at  last 
she  invades  the  very  highest.  Thus  she  passed  from  mathe- 
matics to  mechanics,  then  to  astronomy,  then  to  physics, 
then  to  chemistry,  reducing  all  to  law ;  then,  only  in  the 
present  century,  to  biology ;  then,  only  recently,  to  psychol- 
ogy, and  finally,  even  now,  to  sociology — the  science  of  so- 
cial organization  and  social  progress,  the  highest  of  all. 
Again,  the  recent  introduction  of  the  idea  of  evolution  by 
Darwin,  and  its  extension  by  Spencer  to  every  department 
of  Nature,  has  revolutionized  the  philosophy  and  methods  of 
every  department  of  thought,  especially  that  of  sociology. 
It  is  almost  needless  to  say,  therefore,  that  our  subject  will 
be  treated  as  much  as  possible  by  the  scientific  method,  and 
especially  in  the  light  of  the  theory  of  evolution.  The  time 
has  now  come  when  it  would  seem  that  the  further  advance 
of  civilization,  and  even  the  conservation  of  that  which  we 
have  already  achieved,  is  strictly  conditioned  on  the  use  of 
more  rational — i.  e.,  of  scientific — methods.  This  point  is  so 
fundamentally  important  that  I  stop  for  a  moment  to  ex- 
plain and  enforce. 

Art  is  the  material  embodiment  of  certain  underlying 
rational  principles.  Science  is  the  formal  statement  and 


352  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

discussion  of  these  same  principles.  Thus  art  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  embodiment  or  application  of  science.  Many 
therefore  think  that  science  is  the  mother  of  art,  and  there- 
fore must  precede  art.  But  not  so.  Science  is  rather  the 
offspring  of  art.  In  nearly  all  cases  art  precedes  science 
and  is  its  condition.  Levers  and  pulleys  and  inclined  planes 
were  used  before  the  mechanical  principles  involved  were 
understood.  The  arts  of  pottery,  of  agriculture,  and  of 
healing  were  practiced  long  before  the  corresponding  sci- 
ences existed.  Art,  then,  leads  to  science,  not  science  to 
art ;  but  when  Science  is  sufficiently  advanced  she  turns 
again  and  perfects  art.  But  there  is  a  transition  stage,  when 
an  imperfect  but  arrogant  science  may  interfere  with  the 
truer  results  of  empiricism  and  do  infinite  harm.  This  is 
especially  true  in  the  more  complex  departments.  In  this 
stage  Science  ought  to  be  strictly  subordinate  to  a  wise  em- 
piricism. She  must  whisper  suggestions  rather  than  utter 
commands.  Such  is  the  relation  of  science  to  art  in  agri- 
culture and  medicine  to-day.  To  illustrate  :  Science  is  the 
daughter  of  art — heavenly  daughter  of  an  earthly  mother — 
but  when  she  is  sufficiently  grown  she  turns  again  like  a 
good  daughter  and  helps  her  mother,  and  even  takes  control 
of  the  work.  But  let  her  beware  lest,  in  her  childish  vanity, 
her  unskillful  and  meddlesome  hands  do  harm  instead  of 
good. 

Thus,  then,  there  are  two  kinds  of  art — empirical  art  and 
scientific  or  rational  art.  Empirical  art  precedes  science 
and  is  its  condition ;  rational  art  comes  after  science  and  is 
its  embodiment.  Empirical  art  is  the  outcome  of  the  use 
of  the  intuitive  reason,  which  works  without  understanding 
itself,  and  which  in  its  highest  forms  we  call  genius.  Sci- 
entific art  is  the  outcome  of  the  use  of  the  formal  reason 
which  analyzes  and  understands  the  principles  on  which  it 
works.  Empirical  art  may  indeed  attain  great  perfection, 
but  sooner  or  later  it  reaches  its  limit  and  either  petrifies  or 
decays.  Scientific  art,  because  it  understands  itself,  is  of 
necessity  indefinitely  progressive.  All  art,  by  evolution, 
passes  through  these  two  stages,  but  more  slowly  in  propor- 
tion as  the  principles  involved  are  more  complex.  Many 
arts  are  still  in  the  empirical  stage. 

Now  the  highest,  the  most  complex  and  difficult  of  all 
arts  is  the  art  of  government — of  politics,  of  social  organiza- 
tion. This  art,  of  course,  preceded  the  science  of  sociology, 
for  it  is  the  necessary  condition  not  only  of  the  science  of 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  353 

sociology  but  of  civilization  itself.  This  art  has  thus  far 
perfected  itself  wholly  by  empirical  methods.  But  there  is 
one  peculiarity  about  this  art  which  makes  advance  by  em- 
pirical methods  irregular  and  doubtful.  In  all  other  arts 
the  material  is  foreign  to  the  artist ;  in  this,  artist  and  mate- 
rial are  identified.  Society  makes  itself.  In  this  regard  it 
is  a  product  of  evolution,  not  a  manufactured  article.  But 
again,  this  evolution  differs  from  all  other  kinds  in  this : 
all  other  evolution  is  by  necessary  law  without  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  thing  evolving ;  social  evolution  is  mainly  deter- 
mined by  the  co-operating  will  of  society  itself.  Thus  it  is 
both  a  product  of  art  and  of  evolution.  If  it  were  the  result 
of  pure  evolution  by  necessary  law,  it  would  be  quiet  and 
peaceful ;  if  it  were  the  result  of  pure  art  exercised  on  pas- 
sive, plastic,  foreign  material,  it  would  equally  be  peaceful. 
But  the  mingling  of  these  two  elements  in  varying  propor- 
tion produces  eternal  conflict.  In  early  stages  the  conflict 
is  between  classes  or  factions,  and  is  violent  and  revolution- 
ary ;  in  later  stages  it  is  between  parties  and  far  less  violent. 
But  in  all  cases  it  is  more  or  less  blind,  unreasoning,  pas- 
sionate conflict.  But  social  evolution  and  the  art  of  govern- 
ment have  now  reached  a  point  beyond  which  they  can  not  go 
by  the  use  of  empirical  methods  alone.  There  really  seems, 
in  this  country  at  least,  to  be  serious  danger  of  retrogression 
in  politics  unless  scientific  methods  are  introduced — unless 
we  understand  the  principles  of  sociology  and  try  to  apply 
them  to  the  art  of  government.  On  the  other  hand,  how- 
ever, it  is  evident,  from  what  has  already  been  said,  that  the 
application  must  be  made  with  the  greatest  caution  and 
modesty,  and  in  strict  subordination  to  a  wise  empiricism. 
Science  must  be  introduced  into  politics  only  as  suggesting, 
counseling,  modifying,  not  yet  as  directing  and  controlling. 
Hitherto  social  art  has  advanced  in  a  blind,  blundering, 
staggering  way,  feeling  its  way  in  the  dark,  retrieving  its 
errors,  recovering  its  falls.  But  now,  under  the  light  of 
science,  even  though  it  be  yet  dim,  it  must  advance  more 
steadily,  seeing  as  well  as  feeling  its  way.  The  Ethical 
Association  has  invited  discussion  of  political  and  social 
questions  from  a  scientific  and  especially  an  evolution  point 
of  view.  I  regard  this  as  a  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  times 
— as  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  politics.  It  is  from  this 
point  of  view  that  I  desire  to  discuss  the  race  problem  in 
the  South.  I  can  not  hope,  of  course,  to  solve  so  difficult  a 
problem.  All  I  can  do  is  to  lay'  down  some  scientific  prin- 


354  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ciples  on  which  a  solution  must  be  based,  and  in  all  modesty 
to  suggest  some  practical  methods  of  application  of  these 
principles. 

OUR  BEQUEST  OF  SLAVERY. 

No  subject  can  be  scientifically  understood  until  studied 
in  the  light  of  its  history.  This  is  the  historic  method — the 
evolution  method,  so  much  used  in  modern  research.  It  is 
necessary,  therefore,  first  of  all  to  give  a  brief  outline  of  the 
history  of  this  problem. 

There  was  a  time,  and  that  not  more  than  a  century  ago, 
when  slavery  was  universally  regarded  as  the  normal,  and 
indeed  the  necessary,  result  of  the  close  contact  of  civilized 
with  savage  races.  This  view  may  be  regarded  as  the  nat- 
ural one,  as  the  survival  of  the  law  of  force  and  the  right  of 
the  strongest,  inherited  by  man  from  the  animal  kingdom. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  in  early  stages  of  ethical  evolution 
any  other  relation  was  possible  or  even  desirable ;  since  the 
only  alternative  would  have  been  extinction  of  the  weaker 
race.  The  relation  of  master  and  slave,  then,  is  a  natural 
one  under  the  conditions  given  above.  Now,  let  it  be  re- 
membered that  whatever  is  natural  can  not  be  wholly  wrong ; 
that  the  function  of  reason  is  not  to  despise  or  destroy  or 
reverse  Nature  but  to  transform  it  into  higher  modes.  But 
no  more  of  this  now  ;  we  will  recur  to  it  later.  In  any  case, 
it  will  be  admitted  that  the  present  century  was  not  respon- 
sible for  the  existence  of  slavery  at  the  South  previous  to 
the  late  war.  It  was  a  bequest  from  the  previous  century. 
Again,  we  must  sharply  distinguish  between  the  introduc- 
tion of  slavery  and  its  continuance  after  it  was  introduced. 
All  will  admit  the  iniquity,  the  incredible  horror  of  the 
slave  trade,  but  the  possession  and  use  of  inherited  slaves  is 
consistent  with,  and  may  be  even  conducive  to,  the  highest 
morality.  We,  therefore,  say  nothing  more  concerning  the 
introduction  of  slavery  into  the  United  States.  Americans 
were  no  more  responsible  than  other  civilized  peoples.  The 
South  especially  was,  if  possible,  less  responsible  than  others, 
for  the  slaves  were  brought  not  in  her  ships,  but  in  those  of 
other  countries  or  other  parts  of  our  own  country.  Before 
the  war,  and  the  resulting  emancipation,  the  question  with 
the  South  was  not  as  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  slavery.  That  was  a  dead  issue  of  a  dead  genera- 
tion. "  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead."  The  Negroes  were 
already  there ;  what  relation  must  they  sustain  to  the  whites  ? 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  355 

So,  also,  since  the  war,  and  consequent  emancipation,  the 
question  now  is  not  whether  emancipation  was  right  or 
wrong,  nor,  if  right,  whether  it  came  in  the  best  way.  That 
also  is  a  dead  issue.  The  question  now  is,  Being  emanci- 
pated, what  is  best  to  be  done  with  the  Negro  ?  I  have  called 
these  questions  dead,  but  they  are  not  dead  in  the  sense  of 
being  without  living  progeny.  The  living,  in  this  as  in  all 
cases,  has  been  evolved  out  of  the  dead,  and  must  be  studied 
in  connection  with  the  dead.  This  is  the  historic  or  evolu- 
tion method  spoken  of  above. 

It  is  necessary,  also,  to  trace  briefly  the  history  of  the 
change  of  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 

Immediately  after  the  War  of  the  Revolution  all  the 
States,  unless  we  except  Massachusetts,  tolerated  slavery.  If 
slaves  were  more  numerous  in  the  South,  it  was  only  be- 
cause the  climate  was  more  congenial  and  their  labor  more 
profitable  there.  For  the  same  reasons  there  was  a  contin- 
ual transfer  of  slaves  from  the  North  toward  the  South ;  so 
that  the  disparity  became  greater  with  time.  As  the  blacks 
became  fewer  in  number,  and  their  labor  less  profitable, 
emancipation  laws  were  enacted  in  the  Northern  States  suc- 
cessively. It  is  doubtful  if  the  same  result  would  have  fol- 
lowed, at  least  so  soon,  if  slaves  had  been  more  numerous 
and  more  profitable.  Thus,  the  difference  between  the  two 
sections  in  regard  to  the  presence  or  absence  of  slavery  was 
due  wholly  to  physical  causes,  and  not  to  any  difference  in 
the  moral  character  of  the  people. 

Now,  the  same  was  true  in  regard  to  the  difference  of 
sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery  which  gradually  devel- 
oped in  later  times.  It  was  purely  the  result  of  circum- 
stances. Immediately  after  the  War  of  Independence  there 
was  no  difference  of  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in 
different  sections  of  the  country.  In  fact,  the  sense  of  the 
evils  of  slavery,  and  the  hope  of  abolishing  it,  seem  at  that 
time  to  have  been  stronger  in  Virginia  and  South  Carolina, 
and  other  Southern  States,  than  in  the  North.*  But  here, 
again,  commencing  from  a  common  ground,  there  was  a 
gradually  increasing  divergence.  The  same  was  true  of 
many  other  questions  closely  connected  with  one  another, 

*  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  expressed  hopes  of  the  abrogation  of 
slavery. 

Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  were  taking  steps  looking  toward  gradual 
emancipation  when  checked  by  the  abolition  agitation. 

In  the  first  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Jefferson  introduced  a 
clause  reprobating  the  slave  trade.  This  was  withdrawn  on  account  of  objections 
from  some  of  the  colonies.— Lunt,  Causes  of  the  War  of  '61,  pp.  10-30. 


356  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

and  all  undoubtedly  contributing  to  the  catastrophe  of  the 
war  of  '61.  For  example  :  Starting  from  a  common  ground, 
there  was  an  increasing  divergence  of  views  on  the  subject 
of  the  tariff,  the  natural  result  of  diversity  of  industries. 
Similarly  there  was  an  increasing  divergence  of  views  in 
regard  to  the  relative  claims  of  national  and  State  sover- 
eignty, the  natural  result  of  the  increasing  population  of 
the  Northern  States,  and  the  desire  to  use  the  national 
power  in  their  own  behalf.  Similarly,  an  increasing  diver- 
gence of  views  as  to  the  strict  or  literal  construction  of  the 
National  Constitution,  the  South  being  ever  on  the  defen- 
sive, and  therefore  strict  constructionists.  The  same  was 
true,  and  even  more  true,  of  the  question  of  slavery.  At 
first  slavery  was  tolerated  everywhere.  Then,  wherever  the 
question  could  be  viewed  abstractly  and  disinterestedly,  slav- 
ery was  regarded  as  a  social  evil  and  a  social  danger,  but  no 
longer  avoidable.  We  must  make  the  best  of  it.  Then  the 
sentiment  of  the  world  against  it  became  ever  stronger,  and 
it  was  regarded  as  not  only  a  social  but  a  moral  evil-/-wimt 
/  at  all  hazards  ought  to  be  removed.  Then  it  became  a  mor- 
tal sin,  then  a  crime,  then  the  sum  of  all  crimes  !  Then,  of 
course,  there  commenced  a  holy  crusade  against  it. 

In  the  mean  time  a  contrary  movement  of  sentiment 
was  going  on  at  the  South.  As  slave  labor  became  more 
and  more  profitable,  chiefly  by  the  increasing  culture  of 
cotton  and  rice,  which,  more  than  any  other  products,  re- 
quire the  control  of  labor ;  as  the  number  of  slaves  became 
greater  and  greater,  partly  by  congeniality  of  climate, 
partly  by  migration  from  the  North,  but  chiefly  by  the 
better  care  of  the  slaves  and  their  increased  reproduction — 
the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  became  more  and  more  diffi- 
cult, partly  on  account  of  the  enormous  amount  of  property 
in  this  form,  but  especially  on  account  of  the  extremely 
grave  social  question  involved.  Now,  as  emancipation 
seemed  more  and  more  impossible,  slavery  more  and  more 
fixed,  the  South,  as  was  natural,  set  herself  to  finding  some 
rational  grounds  for  the  defense  of  slavery,  and  many  even 
persuaded  themselves  that,  instead  of  a  curse,  it  was  a  bless- 
ing, and  even  the  sum  of  all  blessings. 

But,  in  spite  of  these  attempts  to  defend  and  even  to 
apotheosize  slavery,  in  the  minds  of  thinking  men  there 
was  an  uneasy  and  even  painful  sense  of  isolation  from  the 
rest  of  the  civilized  world  and  a  consequent  stagnation  of 
the  current  of  progre'ss.  It  was  easily  perceived  that  in 


The  Race  Problem  in  tlie  South.  357 

many  ways  slavery  was  a  blight  on  the  prosperity  of  the 
South.  Thirty  years  before  the  war  the  South  was  fully 
abreast  of  the  foremost  of  the  Northern  States  in  enterprise, 
both  commercial  and  manufacturing,  in  literature  and  in 
art,  and,  in  fact,  in  all  that  constitutes  a  vigorous  progressive 
civilization.  But  these  thirty  years  were  years  of  complete 
revolution  in  the  world's  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
They  were  also  years  of  prodigious  advance  everywhere  ex- 
cept in  the  South.  She  stood  still  while  the  rest  of  the 
world  rushed  on.  That  the  cause  of  this  was  slavery  there 
could  be  no  doubt.  No  people  can  with  impunity  cut 
itself  off  from  sympathy  with  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world. 
It  must  be  left  behind  in  the  race.  Civilization  is  no  longer 
national,  nor  even  racial.  It  must  be  human. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  in  1861.  Such  is  a 
brief  history  of  the  growth  of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict " 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  I  will  not  stop  to  dis- 
cuss the  causes  of  the  war.  Others  can  do  this  better  than 
I ;  and,  besides,  that  is  not  the  subject  now  in  hand.  Cer- 
tain it  is,  however,  that  it  was  the  natural  result  of  increas- 
ing divergence  of  interests  and  sentiment  on  many  subjects 
already  mentioned,  until  finally  parties  became  essentially 
sectional.  Undoubtedly,  however,  by  far  the  most  funda- 
mental of  these,  and  perhaps  the  determining  cause  of 
all  the  other  divergences,  was  the  question  of  slavery.  But 
still  more  fundamental  than  this — than  all  these — in  fact, 
the  underlying  cause  of  all  revolutions — is  the  irrational, 
unscientific,  empirical  methods  of  politics,  already  described. 
If  revolutions  are  to  be  prevented  in  future,  it  must  be 
by  the  use  of  more  rational  methods,  by  understanding  the 
laws  of  sociology,  and  the  wise  application  of  these  laws  in 
politics. 

OP  SLAVES  AS  PROPERTY. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  overwhelming  loss  of  prop- 
erty suffered  by  the  South  as  the  result  of  the  war  and  con- 
sequent emancipation.  This  leads  me  to  say  something  on 
the  economic  question  of  slaves  as  property.  Let  it  be 
understood,  however,  that  what  I  say  on  this  subject  is  the 
result  of  my  own  thoughts  only,  and  carries  no  authority 
with  it  except  its  reasonableness.  I  do  not  profess  to  be  a 
political  economist.  It  may  be  that  the  views  I  am  about  to 
express  are  those  of  political  economists  generally,  but  I  am 
sure  they  are  not  usually  held  by  intelligent  people. 


358  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

When  the  war  was  ended  and  emancipation  accepted, 
everybody  regarded  the  situation  at  the  South  as  that  of  so 
many  thousand  million  dollars'  worth  of  property  complete- 
ly annihilated,  gone  out  of  existence  like  that  which  takes 
place  in  the  burning  of  a  house.  Now  this,  I  am  convinced, 
is  not  true.  I  well  remember  at  that  time  astounding  some 
of  my  friends  by  asserting  that,  under  favorable  conditions 
and  a  due  relation  between  the  amount  of  land  and  slaves, 
there  would  be  no  loss  at  all,  but  only  a  change  of  form  of 
labor.  I  illustrated  this  then,  and  I  would  illustrate  it 
now,  as  follows :  Suppose  I  own  a  certain  amount  of  land, 
and  slaves  enough  to  work  it ;  obviously  the  value  of  the 
whole  property  would  be  determined  by  the  resulting  aver- 
age income.  But  it  will  be  admitted,  and  subsequent  events 
have  proved,  that  the  same  land  worked  faithfully  by  free 
hired  labor  would  make  fully  as  much  income.  Evidently, 
then,  the  value  of  the  property  would  be  unchanged ;  the 
value  of  the  land  alone  after  emancipation  would  be  equal 
to  the  value  of  land  and  slaves  before.  In  other  words,  the 
whole  value  of  the  slaves  would  be  transferred  bodily  over 
to  the  land.  I  repeat,  then,  that  if  after  emancipation  the 
Negroes  had  continued  to  work  faithfully  for  wages,  the 
products  of  the  land  would  have  been  undiminished,  and 
therefore  there  would  have  been  no  perceptible  loss  of  prop- 
erty at  all.  The  great  loss  of  property  and  the  awful  pros- 
tration of  the  South  was  wholly  the  result  of  the  complete 
disorganization  of  the  labor  system.  An  old  system  had 
been  destroyed,  the  new  had  not  yet  been  established.  The 
whole  trouble  was  the  unfortunate  suddenness  of  the  change 
and  the  time  necessary  for  readjustment.  It  is  impossible 
on  any  other  view  to  account  for  the  rapid  recuperation  of 
the  South.  In  many  places,  it  is  true,  the  recuperation  was 
slow ;  in  some  places  the  recuperation  has  not  taken  place  at 
all ;  but  this  is  only  because  the  reorganization  of  labor  has 
been  slower  or  has  not  taken  place  at  all.  This  is  the  case, 
for  example,  on  the  coast  of  Georgia  already  mentioned, 
and  in  many  other  places.  The  number  of  blacks  in  these 
places  is  too  great  to  feel  the  influence  of  the  whites.  The 
community  is  essentially  African,  and  therefore  with  little 
or  no  ambition  to  improve.  Living  is  easy  with  even  a 
minimum  of  labor.  The  Negroes  are  unwilling  to  work  for 
wages.  The  whites  in  despair  have  mostly  moved  away  and 
abandoned  the  cultivation  of  their  lands.  On  this  view  it 
is  easy  to  account  for  individual  cases  of  utter  loss — of  re- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  359 

duction  from  affluence  to  abject  poverty.     But  such  cases 
are  exceptions. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  slaves  are  not  property  at  all  in 
the  sense  that  other  things  are  property.  They  are  not,  and 
never  were,  regarded  at  the  South  as  mere  chattels,  though 
doubtless  too  much  so  in  many  cases.  Slavery  is  only  the 
right,  or  at  least  the  power,  to  control  labor.  Wherever 
capital  controls  labor  there  is  slavery.  If  sla\re  labor  in  any 
case  is  more  profitable  than  free  labor,  it  is  only  because  it 
is  more  controllable. 


ETHNOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  PROBLEM. 

Under  this  general  head  come  several  questions  of  funda- 
mental importance.    Among  these  I  discuss,  first — 

(a)  The  Laws  of  the  Effects  of  Race  Contact. 

The  laws  determining  the  effects  of  contact  of  species, 
races,  varieties,  etc.,  among  animals  may  be  summed  up 
under  the  formula,  "  The  struggle  for  life  and  the  survival 
of  the  fittest."  It  is  vain  to  deny  that  the  same  law  is  ap- 
plicable to  the  races  of  man  also.  All  the  factors  of  organic 
evolution  are  carried  forward  into  human  evolution,  only 
they  are  modified  by  an  additional  and  higher  factor, 
Reason,  in  proportion  to  the  dominance  of  that  factor — i.  e., 
in  proportion  to  civilization.  In  organic  evolution  the  con- 
tact of  two  diverse  forms  determines  either  the  extinction  of 
the  weaker  or  else  its  relegation  to  a  subordinate  place  in 
the  economy  of  Nature ;  the  weaker  is  either  destroyed  or 
seeks  safety  by  avoiding  competition.  In  human  evolution 
the  same  law  must  hold,  with  a  difference  to  be  determined 
by  reason.  At  the  outset  of  this  discussion,  therefore,  it 
is  necessary  to  lay  down  a  fundamental  proposition  which 
must  underlie  all  our  reasonings  on  this  subject :  Given  two 
races  widely  diverse  in  intellectual  and  moral  elevation,  and 
especially  in  capacity  for  self-government — i.  e.,  in  grade  of 
race  evolution ;  place  them  together  in  equal  numbers  and 
under  such  conditions  that  they  can  not  get  away  from 
one  another,  and  leave  them  to  work  out  for  themselves 
as  best  they  can  the  problem  of  social  organization,  and  the 
inevitable  result  will  be,  must  be,  ought  to  be,  that  the 
higher  race  will  assume  control  and  determine  the  policy 
of  the  community.  Not  only  is  this  result  inevitable,  but 
24 


360  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

it  is  the  best  result  for  both  races,  especially  for  the  lower 
race. 

To  illustrate :  Suppose  there  be  cast  on  a  desert  island 
100  grown-up  people  and  100  children  of,  say,  ten  years 
old,  but  having  no  blood  relationship  the  one  set  with  the 
other,  and  a  community  be  there  organized.  Is  it  not 
inevitable — is  it  not  best  for  all  parties,  but  especially  for 
the  children — that  the  grown-up  people  should  assume  entire 
control  and  determine  the  policy  of  the  community,  while 
the  children  should  be  subordinated  to  their  authority  ?  Is 
not  this  just,  is  it  not  right  ?  Talk  about  violation  of  the 
rights  of  the  weaker  !  The  sacredest  of  all  rights,  because 
the  right  most  apt  to  be  violated,  is  the  right  of  the  weak 
and  the  ignorant  to  the  control  and  guidance  of  the  strong 
and  the  wise.  Would  not  even  compulsory  service  in  pro- 
portion to  ability  and  in  return  for  protection  and  guidance 
be  better  than  neglect  and  consequent  extermination  ? 

Or  suppose  1,000  Anglo-Saxons  and  the  same  number  of 
Australian  blacks  be  put  together  in  the  same  place  and 
surrounded  by  an  unscalable  wall  so  that  they  could  not 
run  away  from  the  experiment.  Is  it  not  evident  that  the 
founding  of  a  civilized  community  is  strictly  conditioned  on 
the  complete  supremacy  of  the  white  race  ?  The  disparity 
between  the  two  classes  in  this  case  is  fully  as  great  as  in 
the  last,  but  the  problem  would  be  far  more  difficult,  be- 
cause of  the  physical  strength  and  animal  ferocity  of  the 
Australian  as  compared  with  the  physical  weakness,  and 
especially  the  docility,  of  the  children.  But  in  some  way — 
peaceable  if  possible,  forcible  if  necessary — the  higher  race 
must  control  and  determine  the  policy  of  the  community. 
Here  again  even  compulsory  service,  if  necessary,  in  propor- 
tion to  ability  and  in  return  for  protection  and  guidance,  is 
best  for  both  races,  but  especially  for  the  lower  race ;  for  the 
only  alternative  for  them  is  extermination.  You  may  call 
it  slavery  if  you  like.  If  so,  then  slavery  under  certain  con- 
ditions is  right.  But  the  relation,  if  kindly  and  wisely  ad- 
ministered, is  not  slavery  in  any  philosophic  sense. 

We  have  said  above  that  the  inevitable  result  of  such  con- 
tact is  either  subordination  of  some  kind  or  degree,  or  else 
extermination.  Which  it  will  be,  depends  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  two  races,  especially  the  lower.  If  it  be  in  the 
early  stages  of  race-evolution,  and  therefore  plastic,  docile, 
imitative,  some  form  of  subordination  will  be  the  result ; 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  highly  specialized  and  rigid, 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  361 

extermination  is  unavoidable.  The  Negro  is  probably  the 
best  type  of  the  former  and  the  American  Indian  of  the  latter. 
Now,  the  condition  of  things  at  the  South  to-day,  though 
certainly  not  identical,  is  similar  to  that  described  above. 
Here  we  have  two  races  widely  different  in  grade  of  evolu- 
tion, in  nearly  equal  numbers  in  the  same  place.  The  dif- 
ference in  grade  may  not  be  as  great  as  that  described 
above ;  but,  if  not,  we  owe  it  to  the  previous  condition  of 
subordination  to  the  white  race.  The  result,  therefore, 
must  be  similar,  though  certainly  not  identical  with  the 
cases  described  above.  As  a  broad  general  fact,  control  of 
some  kind  or  degree  must  be  in  the  hands  of  the  superior 
race.  I  do  not  say  that  the  best  form  of  such  control  is 
slavery.  If  it  ever  were  the  best  form  (as  it  probably  once 
was),  it  is  not  so  now.  The  Negro  under  slavery,  and  by 
means  of  slavery  (for  in  no  other  way  was  close  and  peace- 
able contact  of  the  two  races  possible),  has  been  developed 
above  slavery.  Slavery  was  probably  at  one  time  the  only 
natural  or  even  possible  relation  between  the  two  races,  and 
was  therefore  right.  The  evils  were  not  in  the  institution, 
but  in  its  abuses.  But  by  race-evolution  of  the  Negro  this 
relation  became  less  and  less  natural,  and  therefore  less  and 
less  right.  It  was  probably  becoming  wrong  before  the  war. 
Even  without  a  war,  and  an  emancipation  proclamation,  I 
believe  slavery  would  certainly  have  come  to  an  end,  not  by 
the  external  pressure  of  a  foreign  sentiment,  but  by  the  in- 
ternal pressure  of  race-growth.  The  race-evolution  of  the 
Negro  had  gone  as  far  as  it  was  possible  under  the  condi- 
tions of  slavery.  Freedom  in  some  form  or  degree  was 
necessary  for  its  further  evolution.  I  say  "  some  form  or 
degree  " ;  for  the  right  to  freedom,  as  we  understand  it  in 
this  country,  has  not  yet  been  achieved  by  the  Negro  race  in 
the  South,  as  a  whole.  By  slavery  the  Negro  has  been  edu- 
cated up  to  the  right  to  some  measure  of  freedom,  but  not 
as  a  race  to  complete  freedom.  Some  form  or  degree  of 
control  by  the  white  race  is  still  absolutely  necessary.  I 
mean  not  personal  control,  but  control  of  State  policy. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  some  device  by  means  of  which 
the  policy  of  the  community  shall  be  substantially  under 
the  control  of  those  alone  who  are  most  capable  of  self-gov- 
ernment is  the  absolute  condition  of  civilization  there.  What 
is  the  best  legal  device  for  this  purpose  is  just  the  problem 
to  be  worked  out  by  the  Southern  people,  and  they  will 
work  it  out  if  let  alone. 


362  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

The  Wide  Significance  of  the  Problem. 

It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  importance  to  the  South 
of  this  problem,  for  the  very  existence  of  a  civilized  com- 
munity there  is  conditioned  on  its  successful  solution.  But 
it  is  also  a  problem  of  widest  application,  affecting  all  the 
races  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Everywhere  the  white  race 
is  pushing  its  way  among  lower  races.  Everywhere,  now 
that  slavery  is  inadmissible,  the  result  is  gradual  extinction 
of  the  lower  race.  And  this  tendency  to  destroy  lower 
races  is  steadily  increasing  with  the  increased  energy  of 
modern  civilization.  Is  this  result  inevitable  ?  If  not, 
how  is  it  to  be  avoided  ?  Nowhere  are  the  opportunities 
for  the  successful  solution  of  this  question  so  favorable  as 
at  the  South  to-day.  In  the  first  place,  the  problem  is 
a  more  pressing  one  there  than  anywhere  else ;  it  must  be 
solved,  and  that  speedily.  In  the  second  place,  the  Negro 
is  the  very  best  race  that  could  be  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose. As  this  is  an  important  point,  I  stop  a  moment  to 
explain. 

In  this  regard  the  inferior  races  may  be  divided  into  two 
groups — viz.,  those  which  are  inferior  because  undeveloped, 
and  those  which  are  so  because  developed,  perhaps  highly 
developed,  in  a  limited  way  or  in  a  wrong  direction.  Races 
of  the  first  group  may  be  called  generalized  ;  they  are  plas- 
tic, adaptable  to  new  conditions,  and  therefore  easily  molded 
by  contact  with  higher  races.  Those  of  the  second  group 
are  specialized ;  they  are  rigid,  unadaptable  to  new  condi- 
tions. The  Negro  is  the  best  type  of  the  first  group,  and 
perhaps  the  Chinese  of  the  second  group.  The  Chinese 
are  a  highly  developed  race,  but  extremely  rigid  under  the 
influence  of  other  races.  The  Japanese  are  far  more  plastic. 
The  Negro  has  many  fine  and  hopeful  qualities.  He  is  plas- 
tic, docile,  impressionable,  sympathetic,  imitative,  and  there- 
fore in  a  high  degree  improvable  by  contact  with  a  superior 
race  and  under  suitable  conditions.  It  is  doubtful  if  any 
other  race  could  have  so  thrived  and  improved  under  slavery 
as  the  Negro  has  done.  But,  although  the  Negro  by  means 
of  slavery  has  been  raised  above  slavery,  it  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  he  has  yet  reached  the  position  of 
equality  with  the  white  race— that  unassisted  he  can  found 
a  free  civilized  community.  The  question,  therefore,  still 
remains,  What  is  the  just  and  rational  relation  that  should 
subsist  between  the  two  races  ?  It  is  the  problem  of  race- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  363 

contact  everywhere,  but  here  under  conditions  most  favor- 
able for  successful  solution. 

Objections. 

Doubtless  many  objections  will  be  raised  against  the  fore- 
going positions.  Many  persons  will  not  even  admit  the 
gravity  of  the  problem,  or  that  any  solution  is  necessary. 
For  them,  the  formula,  "  All  men  are  born  equal,"  is  a  suf- 
ficient solution.  They  say  that  the  Southern  people  are 
wholly  wrong  in  imagining  any  difficulty  in  the  matter — 
that  elsewhere  among  civilized  peoples,  as,  for  example,  in 
Europe  and  in  New  England,  Negroes  are  treated  much  like 

Cple  of  other  and  whiter  color.  True ;  but  it  must  be 
ne  in  mind  that  relative,  numbers  is  a  prime  factor  in 
the  question.  If  there  be  only  a  few  of  a  lower  race  scat- 
tered about  in  a  community,  we  can  afford  to  recognize,  nay 
more,  to  patronize — nay  more,  if  it  serves  any  purpose,  to 
lionize  them.  But  when  the  numbers  are  equal  or  nearly 
so,  when  there  is  a  struggle  between  the  two  races  for  con- 
trol of  the  policy  of  the  community,  the  case  is  very  differ- 
ent. The  higher  race  must  iake  control.  There  is  not  a 
civilized  community  in  the  world  that  would  not  demand 
this.  The  Hindu  visitor  in  England  is  treated  with  respect, 
and  even  lionized,  but  in  India  the  race  line  is  drawn  nearly 
as  sharply  as  it  is  at  the  South,  and  yet  the  Hindu  is  a 
Caucasian — aye,  even  an  Aryan  people.  See,  again,  the  rela- 
tion between  the  English  and  the  aboriginal  Australian  or 
the  New  Zealander  whenever  they  come  in  close  contact. 
If  the  problem  is  not  so  serious  in  these  countries,  it  is  only 
because  there  is  still  room  enough  and  to  spare — the  lower 
race  may  withdraw  itself  from  close  contact,  if  it  so  desires. 
It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  feeling  which  draws  the  race 
line  is  not  peculiar  to  the  South,  but  is  found  everywhere 
under  similar  conditions.  Nor  is  it  a  matter  of  political 
party.  Northern  Republicans,  settling  at  the  South,  soon 
catch  the  infection. 

But  it  will  be  objected  again  that  any  relation  between 
the  races  other  than  that  of  complete  equality  in  all  re- 
spects is  manifestly  in  conflict  with  the  fundamental  law  of 
the  nation,  and  especially  the  recent  amendments  of  the 
Constitution.  I  sincerely  hope  not.  I  hope  and  believe 
that  there  may  be  found  some  lust  and  rational  method  of 
solving  this  problem  which  will  not  be  in  conflict  with 


364  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

fundamental  law.  But  if  not — if  there  be  indeed  a  radi- 
cal discordance,  an  irreconcilable  conflict  between  funda- 
mental law  and  the  position  taken  above — then  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say,  So  much  the  worse  for  the  fundamental  law 
and  the  constitutional  amendments,  for  it  only  shows  that 
these  are  themselves  in  conflict  with  the  still  more  funda- 
mental laws  of  Nature,  which  are  the  laws  of  God.  If  it  be 
so,  then  the  South  is  very  sorry,  but  it  can't  be  helped. 
There  is  a  law  of  self-preservation  for  communities  as  well 
as  for  individuals,  and  this  law  takes  precedence  of  all  other 
laws.  It  is  a  higher  law  if  you  like.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  in  1850  Massachusetts,  too,  preached  a  higher  law  than 
the  Constitution.  If  ever  there  were  a  case  in  which  the 
doctrine  of  a  higher  law  was  justifiable,  surely  it  is  this.  It 
is  true  that  sacrifice  of  the  individual  freely  to  the  State  is 
noble.  It  is  true  that  Socrates — not  to  mention  a  still 
higher  and  diviner  example — subordinated  the  law  of  self- 
preservation  itself  to  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  we  reverence 
him  for  so  doing.  But  remember,  first,  that  this  was  done 
on  high  ethical,  not  legal,  grounds;  and,  secondly,  that 
when,  as  in  this  case,  the  question  is  that  of  preservation, 
not  of  the  individual,  but  of  the  community,  of  civilization, 
of  the  interests  of  humanity,  the  law  of  self-preservation 
stands  on  the  highest  ethical  as  well  as  the  strictest  legal 
grounds.  In  this  case  the  right  of  self-preservation  becomes 
the  duty  of  self-preservation. 

The  whites,  I  believe,  desire  earnestly — more  earnestly  than 
can  be  well  imagined  by  those  at  a  distance — the  real  best 
interests  of  the  blacks.  They  earnestly  desire  their  elevation 
both  by  education  and  by  acquisition  of  property.  There  can 
be  no  better  evidence  of  this  than  the  fact  that  nearly  the 
whole  expense  (ninety  per  cent  in  South  Carolina)  of  the 
education  of  the  blacks  is  borne  by  the  whites.  They  would 
grant,  I  am  sure,  every  just  right ;  but  all  on  the  one  con- 
dition that  in  some  way  the  whites  shall,  for  the  present  at 
least,  substantially  control  the  policy  of  the  State.  This  is 
an  absolute  necessity  at  present  and  until  some  better  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  be  devised,  until  some  better  line  than 
the  race-line  be  drawn  between  the  capables  and  the 
incapables.  That  this  is  true  is  plainly  shown  by  the  dis- 
astrous results  of  the  brief  reign  of  carpet-baggers  sustained 
by  Negro  votes  after  the  war,  and  the  immediate  restoration 
of  order  and  prosperity  so  soon  as  the  whites  again  assumed 
control. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  365 

But  it  will  be  objected  again  that  the  race-line  is  artifi- 
cial, and  therefore  unjust  and  irrational,  and  that  there 
are  many  blacks  more  capable  of  intelligently  directing  the 
policy  of  the  State  than  some  whites.  Yes,  this  is  true. 
But  are  not  all  lines  more  or  less  artificial  ?  Can  there  be 
anything  more  artificial  than  the  age-line  ?  Are  there  not 
many  persons  under  twenty-one  more  capable  than  many 
over  twenty-one  ?  In  this  case,  it  is  true,  the  admitted  in- 
justice will  be  speedily  removed  by  advancing  age.  But  so 
in  the  other,  also,  the  admitted  injustice  will,  we  hope,  be 
removed,  though  not  so  speedily,  by  race-growth,  race-educa- 
tion. In  both  cases  it  is  an  age-line — in  the  one  case  of  the 
individual,  in  the  other  of  the  race.  The  one  is  no  more 
unjust  than  the  other. 

But  again  it  will  be  objected  that  the  race-line  is  wholly 
the  result  of  race- prejudice,  and  this  in  its  turn  only  a  rem- 
nant of  slavery.  It  may,  indeed,  be  partly  the  result  of 
race-prejudice,  but  not,  I  think,  a  remnant  of  slavery.  The 
race-prejudice  is  not  confined  to  the  South.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  probably  less  there  than  elsewhere.  But  race- 
prejudice  or  race-repulsion,  to  use  a  stronger  term,  is  itself 
not  a  wholly  irrational  feeling.  It  is  probably  an  instinct 
necessary  to  preserve  the  blood  purity  of  the  higher  race. 
But  of  this  I  shall  have  more  to  say  hereafter. 

(b)  The  Principles  of  Race-improvement. 

1  have  spoken  of  the  color-line  as  a  race-age-line,  which, 
even  though  no  better  line  could  be  drawn,  would  not  re- 
main, but  be  eventually  removed  by  race-development.  This 
leads  me  to  speak  of  the  principles  of  race-improvement. 

It  has  been  imagined  by  many  over-sanguine  persons  that 
the  whole  race  problem  will  be  speedily  solved  by  public- 
school  education.  This,  I  suppose,  is  the  form  of  solution 
present  in  the  minds  of  most  people.  I  am  quite  sure  this 
is  to  some  extent  a  delusion.  Education  has  done  much 
lor  the  Negro,  but  it  will  not  solve  the  problem  in  this  gen- 
eration, nor  in  many  generations.  The  education  of  the 
individuals  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  evolution  of 
the  race.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  evolution  of 
races  is  largely  determined  by  the  same  factors  that  deter- 
mine the  evolution  of  the  organic  kingdom.  Now,  there 
are  some  biologists  of  highest  rank  who  go  so  far  as  to  deny 
that  individual  acquirements  can  be  inherited  at  all.  If 


366  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

these  biologists  are  right,  then  education  of  individuals  does 
not  improve  the  race  at  all.  I  do  not  agree  with  these  biolo- 
gists, and  have  given  my  reasons  in  a  previous  article.* 
Nevertheless,  it  is  certain  that  in  animals,  and  also  in  man, 
the  whole  improvement  of  the  individual  is  not  carried 
over  bodily  into  the  next  generation  by  inheritance,  but 
only  a  very  small  part.  A  small  part  of  the  improvement 
of  each  generation  is  carried  over  by  inheritance  to  the 
next,  and  this,  accumulating  from  age  to  age,  constitutes 
the  gradual  evolution  of  the  race.  Thus  the  education  of 
the  individual  is  one  thing  and  the  evolution  of  the  race  is 
another  and  very  different  thing.  The  one  is  a  question  of 
a  few  years,  the  other  a  question  of  centuries,  perhaps  mil- 
lenniums. The  truth  is,  education — i.  e.,  school  education, 
book  education — is  usually  regarded  as  a  panacea  for  all  the 
evils  of  society.  But  this  is  a  false  and  very  pernicious 
view.  The  experimental  philosophy  of  the  last  age,  and 
still  prevalent  in  this,  would  make  the  whole  intellectual 
and  moral  capital  of  every  individual  the  result  of  his  own 
individual  acquirement.  This  is  an  arrogant  philosophy. 
It  exalts  too  much  the  importance  of  the  individual,  and 
has  had  much  to  do  with  many  of  the  evils  of  society  of  the 
present  day.  But  one  of  the  most  important  recent  modifi- 
cations of  our  philosophy  of  life,  forced  upon  us  by  the 
theory  of  evolution,  is  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  a 
very  large  part  of  every  man's  intellectual  and  moral  capital 
comes  by  inheritance.  In  animals  all  or  nearly  all  is  in- 
herited ;  in  man  a  part  is  inherited  and  a  part  individually 
acquired.  The  higher  the  race,  the  larger  is  the  proportion 
of  individual  acquirement.  But  in  all  cases  the  inherited 
bank  account  is  continually  growing  from  generation  to 
generation  by  small  additions  from  individual  acquisition. 
The  growing  inheritance  constitutes  the  evolution  of  the 
race. 

But  some  will  object  that,  so  far  as  the  evidence  of  the 
schools  is  concerned,  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  regard- 
ing the  Negro  as  at  all  lower  than  the  white  race.  On  the 
contrary,  the  Negro  pupils  show  remarkable  brightness.  This 
is  probably  true.  They  do  indeed  show  brightness,  quick- 
ness of  memory,  keenness  of  senses,  precocity  of  perceptive 
faculties.  These  qualities  are  very  characteristic  of  nearly 
all  lower  races  (and,  indeed,  also  of  animals) ;  but  they 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  reflective,  originating, 

*  The  Factors  of  Evolution,  etc.    The  Monist  for  July,  1891. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  367 

rational  faculties  which  develop  late,  and  show  themselves 
in  active  life  rather  than  in  school.  It  is  in  these  highest 
faculties  alone  that  the  great  difference  exists. 

Again  :  In  these  modern  times  there  is  a  strong  tendency 
to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  formal  education  (i.  e., 
school  education,  book  education)  as  compared  with  informal 
education.  Now,  in  all  of  us,  but  especially  in  lower  races, 
it  is  the  informal  education — that  which  comes  by  contact 
with  higher  individuals  and  higher  races — that  is  by  far  the 
most  important  in  the  formation  of  character,  and  there- 
fore for  self-government  and  fitting  for  citizenship.  The 
simple  contact  with  the  white  race  in  slavery  times,  and  the 
same  contact  together  with  the  necessity  of  self-support 
since  emancipation,  has  done  more  for  the  elevation  of 
the  Negro  than  school  education  alone  could  possibly 
have  done.  Not  only  has  the  Negro  been  elevated  to  his 
present  condition  by  contact  with  the  white  race,  but  he  is 
sustained  in  that  position  wholly  by  the  same  contact,  and 
whenever  that  support  is  withdrawn  he  relapses  again  to  his 
primitive  state.  The  Negro  race  is  still  in  childhood;  it 
has  not  yet  learned  to  walk  alone  in  the  paths  of  civilization. 
In  the  South  to-day  wherever  the  whites  predominate,  so 
that  the  policy  of  the  community  is  determined  by  them 
alone,  the  Negroes  are  industrious,  thrifty,  commencing  to 
acquire  property,  and,  in  fact,  improving  in  every  way.  But, 
on  the  contrary,  wherever  the  Negroes  are  largely  in  excess,  as 
in  some  portions  of  the  coast  regions  of  the  South  Atlantic 
and  Gulf  States,  so  that  the  influence  of  the  whites  is 
scarcely  felt  and  the  community  is  essentially  African,  the 
Negroes  are  rapidly  falling  back  into  savagery,  and  even  re- 
suming many  of  their  original  pagan  rites  and  superstitions. 

(c)  Principles  of  Race-mixture. 

Another  proposed  solution  of  the  problem  is  complete 
race-mixture.  Eace-mixture  often  produces  good  effects : 
why  not  this  ?  I  know  of  no  American  writer  of  distinc- 
tion who  has  proposed  this  solution,  but  some  thoughtful 
English  writers  see  no  other  solution  possible.  This  brings 
me  to  discuss  this  subject  in  the  light  of  biology,  and 
especially  of  evolution. 

In  a  previous  article,  on  Genesis  of  Sex  (Popular  Science 
Monthly,  November,  1879),  I,  have  treated  this  subject 
more  fully  on  the  biological  side,  and  in  another  article, 


i 


368  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

on  Mixture  of  Eaces  (Berkeley  Quarterly  for  April,  1880), 
I  have  applied  the  biological  principles  to  the  subject  of 
human  progress.  I  can  here  only  give  a  brief  resume^  re- 
ferring the  reader  for  fuller  details  to  the  articles  men- 
tioned. 

Darwin,  by  abundant  and  conclusive  experiments,  has 
shown  that  in  plants  in  which  the  flowers  are  bisexual — i.  e., 
contain  both  stamens  and  pistils-j-and  are  thus  self -fertil- 
izing/ if  self-fertilization  be  prevented  and  cross-fertilization 
between  different  flowers  of  the  same  plant,  or,  still  better, 
between  flowers  of  different  plants  of  the  same  species,  be 
effected,  the  result  will  be  more  and  larger  seeds,  and  there- 
fore more  and  healthier  offspring,  than  in  the  case  of  self- 
fertilization.  Now,  this  experiment  undoubtedly  furnishes 
the  key  to  the  explanation  of  the  advantages  of  sexual  over 
other  forms  of  generation,  and  the  object  of  its  introduc- 
tion, as  well  as  of  much  else  in  the  process  of  evolution. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  non-sexual  preceded  sexual 
modes  of  generation,  and  that  the  sexual  modes  were  intro- 
duced in  order  thereby  to  bring  about  cross-fertilization ; 
and,  furthermore,  that  throughout  the  whole  evolution  of 
the  organic  kingdom  the  constant  effort  of  Nature  has  been 
to  bring  about  an  increasing  diversity  of  the  crossing  indi- 
viduals up  to  a  limit  which  will  be  presently  explained  ; 
and,  finally,  that  the  object  of  all  this,  or  at  least  its  effect, 
has  been  to  produce  better  and  better  results  in  the  off- 
spring. 

The  steps  of  this  process  were  briefly  as  follows :  (1) 
First  there  was  only  the  simplest  conceivable  form  of  gen- 
eration, viz.,  that  by  fission — fissiparous  generation.  Here 
there  is  not  even  the  distinction  between  parent  and  off- 
spring. (2)  Next  there  was  generation  by  budding — 
gemmiparous  generation — but  from  any  part  alike.  Here 
first  emerges  the  distinction  of  parent  and  offspring,  for 
the  bud  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  original  organism.  (3) 
Then,  by  the  law  of  specialization,  the  function  of  budding 
is  relegated  to  a  particular  part,  and  we  have  a  budding 
organ.  (4)  Then  by  another  general  law  the  budding  or- 
gan is  transferred  for  greater  safety  to  an  interior  surface, 
and  thus  simulates  an  ovary,  though  not  a  true  ovary.  (5) 
Then  this  organ  develops  two  kinds  of  cells — sperm-cell  and 
germ-cell.  Here  for  the  first  time  we  have  the  sexual  ele- 
ments— male  and  female — which  by  their  union  produce  the 
ovum,  which  in  its  turn  develops  into  the  offspring.  This 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  369 

is  the  lowest  form  of  sexual  generation.  We  have  male  and 
female  elements,  but  not  male  and  female  organs,  much  less 
male  and  female  individuals.  (6)  The  next  step  is  the 
separation  of  the  two  organs,  male  and  female — spermary 
and  ovary — which  prepare  the  two  elements,  sperm-cell  and 
germ-cell ;  but  these  organs  yet  remain  in  the  same  indi- 
vidual. This  is  hermaphroditism,  almost  universal  among 
plants  and  very  common  among  lower  animals.  (7)  The 
next  step  is  the  introduction  of  devices  of  many  kinds  to  pre- 
vent self-fertilization  and  insure  cross-fertilization  between 
different  hermaphroditic  individuals.  (8)  The  next  step  is 
the  separation  of  the  sexual  organs  in  different  individuals, 
thus  entirely  preventing  self-fertilization ;  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  sex-attraction,  insuring  cross-fertilization.  (9)  The 
next  step  is  the  gradually  increasing  diversity  of  the  crossing 
individuals — i.  e.,  of  the  males  and  females.  (10)  The  last 
step,  and  the  one  which  specially  concerns  us  here,  is  the 
crossing  of  males  and  females  of  different  varieties  of  the 
same  species.  These  are  the  principal  steps ;  but  of  course 
there  are  many  gradations  between. 

Now,  the  effect,  and  therefore  the  object,  of  this  whole 
process  of  gradual  differentiation  is  the  bringing  about  of 
better  results  in  the  offspring.  Why  the  results  are  better, 
is  more  obscure.  It  is  undoubtedly  due  in  some  way  to  the 
increasing  diversity  of  the  qualities  inherited  by  the  off- 
spring from  the  two  parents — the  funding  of  diverse  quali- 
ties in  a  common  offspring.  This  may  improve  the  off- 
spring in  two  ways :  First,  by  the  struggle  for  life  among 
the  many  qualities,  good  and  bad,  strong  and  weak,  inher- 
ited from  both  sides,  and  the  survival  of  the  strongest  and 
best  qualities.  Secondly,  diversity  of  inheritance  tends  to 
variation  of  offspring,  and  this  furnishes  materials  for  nat- 
ural selection,  and  thus  hastens  the  process  of  evolution. 
But  there  is  a  limit  to  the  good  effects  of  this  differentiation 
of  uniting  individuals  ;  for  the  union  of  individuals  of  dif- 
ferent species  is  either  less  fertile  or  wholly  infertile.  In 
other  words,  when  the  difference  between  the  uniting  indi- 
viduals reaches  the  extent  which  we  call  species,  then  Na- 
ture practically  forbids  the  bans.  I  say  practically  forbids. 
There  are  many  degrees  of  fertility  and  infertility  between 
species.  In  most  cases  the  infertility  is  absolute — i.  e.,  the 
union  is  without  offspring.  In  some  there  is  offspring,  but 
the  offspring  is  a  sterile  hybrid  which  dies  without  issue. 
In  some  the  hybrid  is  fertile,  but  its  offspring  is  feeble,  and 


370  The  Race  Problem  in  the  Soirih. 

therefore  quickly  eliminated  in  the  struggle  for  life  with 
the  pure  stock,  and  becomes  extinct  in  a  few  generations ; 
or  else  it  is  more  fertile  with  the  pure  stock  than  with 
other  hybrids,  and  therefore  is  absorbed  into  one  or  other 
of  the  parent  stocks,  and  the  original  species  remain  dis- 
tinct. If  this  were  not  so,  there  would  be  no  such  thing  as 
species  at  all. 

Now,  to  sum  up  and  apply :  It  is  well  known  that  in  the 
higher  animals  close,  consanguineous,  in-and-in  breeding 
continued  for  a  long  time  weakens  the  stock,  while  judicious 
crossing  of  varieties  strengthens  the  stock.  But  there  must 
be  a  limit  beyond  which  the  effect  again  becomes  bad ;  for 
when  the  difference  between  the  uniting  individuals  reaches 
the  extent  of  species,  Nature  forbids  the  bans — i.  e.,  there  is 
no  result  at  all.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  we  may  repre- 
sent the  effect  of  cross-breeding  among  higher  animals  by  a 
sinuous  curve,  as  shown  below : 

CL      v    .^^^^>^b       qq 


DIAGRAM  ILLUSTRATING  THE  EFFECTS  OF  CROSS-BREEDING. 

In  this  diagram  the  horizontal  line  represents  the  average 
results  of  indiscriminate  breeding,  or  the  ordinary  typical 
condition  of  the  species.  Distance  of  points  on  this  line 
represents  the  amount  of  diiference  of  uniting  individuals, 
and  the  sinuous  line  represents  the  varying  effects  of  cross- 
ing of  selected  varieties.  Where  this  line  passes  below  the 
horizontal  line  it  shows  effects  below  the  average;  when 
above  that  line,  effects  above  the  average.  By  inspection  it 
is  seen  that  close  in-and-in  breeding,  a  a,  produces  bad  ef- 
fects ;  b  b  represent  ordinary  individual  differences,  the  cross- 
ing of  which  produces  average  results,  and  tends  to  main- 
tain the  average  level ;  v  v  represent  varieties,  the  crossing 
of  which  produces  good  results,  which  rise  to  a  maximum 
at  v'  v',  and  then  declining  again,  become  bad  or  below  the 
average  at  v"  v" ;  until,  finally,  when  the  difference  of  the 
uniting  individuals  reaches  the  extent  which  we  call  species, 
s  s,  then  the  result  becomes  infinitely  bad — i.  e.,  produces 
no  offspring.  In  a  general  way,  therefore,  the  diagram  rep- 
resents the  facts  of  cross-breeding. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  371 

Now,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  above  law  applies 
also  to  man,  with  perhaps  some  modifications,  to  be  deter- 
mined by  investigation.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  long- 
continued  consanguineous,  in-and-in  breeding  has  a  bad  ef- 
fect also  in  man,  and  probably  even  more  so  than  in  animals. 
I  am  well  aware  that  some  recent  writers  have  contested 
this  statement,  but  the  examples  cited  are  those  of  isolated 
communities  under  peculiarly  healthy  conditions ;  and, 
moreover,  the  argument  relates  only  to  the  physical  and  not 
to  the  psychical  nature.  But  it  is  the  psychical  nature 
which  is  peculiarly  sensitive,  and  which  we  are  specially 
concerned  with  here,  for  we  are  discussing  the  effects  on 
human  evolution  or  progress.  Bodily  health  and  strength 
are,  of  course,  a  necessary  underlying  condition ;  but  human 
evolution  is  spiritual,  not  bodily.  Organic  evolution  is  by 
change  of  form  and  making  of  new  species,  in  order  to 
come  into  harmony  with  an  ever-changing  environment. 
Man,  on  the  other  hand,  changes  the  environment  so  as  to 
bring  it  into  harmony  with  himself  and  his  wants;  and, 
therefore,  his  evolution  is  not  by  change  of  form  or  making 
of  new  species  of  man,  but  by  change  of  character  and  ele- 
vation of  the  plane  of  his  activity. 

But  to  return.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  consanguin- 
eous breeding  of  families,  true  breeding  in  isolated  com- 
munities, and  even  continuous  breeding  within  the  limits  of 
a  national  variety,  tend  in  various  degrees  to  fixedness  of 
character,  customs,  laws,  modes  of  thought  and  feeling,  and 
thus,  finally,  to  rigidity  and  arrest  of  development ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  crossing  of  family  bloods,  communal 
bloods,  and  national  bloods  tends  not  only  to  strengthen 
physically  and  mentally  by  the  survival  of  the  best  qualities 
inherited  from  both  sides,  but  also,  and  much  more,  to  pre- 
vent fixedness  of  character  and  arrest  of  development,  to 
confer  plasticity,  comprehensiveness,  many-sidedness,  and 
thus  to  promote  progress.  No  doubt  commerce,  travel,  edu- 
cation, all  tend  in  the  same  direction,  but  mixture  of  blood 
and  diverse  inheritance  is  the  most  direct  and  potent  means 


of  accomplishing  this  result. 
It  is  evident,  th< 


,  that  the  effect  of  mixing  human  varie- 
ties is  similar  to  the  effect  of  mixing  animal  varieties,  and 
that  in  a  general  way  both  are  truly  represented  by  the  dia- 
gram. The  only  question  that  remains  is :  What  amount 
of  difference  produces  maximum  results ;  and  where,  if  any- 
where, do  bad  results  begin?  'This  question  can  not  be 


372  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

answered  with  certainty;  but  it  seems  probable  that  the 
crossing  of  national  varieties,  and  perhaps  of  all  varieties 
within  the  limits  of  the  four  or  five  primary  races,  may  pro- 
duce good  effects ;  but  that  the  crossing  of  these  primary 
races  themselves  produces  bad  effects.  It  seems  probable 
that  in  the  evolution  of  man  from  the  animal  kingdom 
there  was  a  differentiation  into  varieties  so  strong  that  they 
may  be  regarded  as  incipient  species.  If  so,  then  the  di- 
vergence between  these  primary  races  has  passed  the  limit 
within  which  crossing  has  a  good  effect.  The  results  of 
such  crossing  partake  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  hybrids — 
they  are  less  strong  than  either  of  the  pure  races.  Eace- 
aversion — which  certainly  exists,  though  it  may  be  over- 
leaped by  passion — is  probably  a  sign  of  a  difference  ap- 
proaching specific. 

This  conclusion,  reached  by  general  considerations  alone, 
is  substantially  confirmed  by  such  loose  observations  as  have 
been  made  on  such  crosses.  Opportunities  of  widest  ob- 
servation on  this  point  occur  at  the  South ;  but,  unfortu- 
nately, they  have  not  been  as  careful  and  scientific  as  we 
would  desire.  There  seems  little  doubt,  however,  that  mu- 
lattoes  have  not  the  strength  and  endurance  of  either  of  the 
pure  races.  It  is  certain  that  they  are  much  more  liable  to 
hereditary  diseases,  especially  the  different  forms  of  scrof- 
ula. It  is  almost  certain  that  when  they  marry  among  them- 
selves the  next  generation  is  even  still  feebler;  and  it  is 
probable,  though  not  certain,  that  in  a  few  generations  they 
would  die  out  unless  re-enforced  by  the  stronger  blood  of  the 
pure  races,  in  which  case,  of  course,  they  would  disappear 
by  absorption  into  the  one  race  or  the  other.  In  intellect 
the  mulatto  is  certainly  superior  to  the  Negro;  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  he  attains  even  the  mean  between  the  two  races ; 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  white  blood  does  not  lose  more 
than  the  black  gains  by  the  mixture.  These  conclusions  have 
been  reached  by  nearly  all  observers,  as,  for  example,  by 
Morton,  Nott,  Glidden,  Gobineau,  Ferrier,  etc.  I  know  of 
but  one  writer — Quatrefages — who  contests  them.  The  ques- 
tion is  a  very  complex  one.  Moral  influences  may  have 
much  to  do  with  the  dying  out  of  a  race.  The  anomalous 
position  of  the  mulatto,  recognized  by  neither  race,  may 
have  its  effect.  But  this  again  is  only  another  evidence 
that  successful  mixing  is  impossible. 

But  some,  even  here  in  America,  have  thought  that, 
whether  we  like  it  or  not,  whether  the  effect  of  mixture  be 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  373 

good  or  bad,  the  problem  is  going  to  solve  itself  in  this 
way.  I  am  not  sure,  but  I  think  they  are  mistaken.  The 
mixing  01  the  races  has  been  greatly  exaggerated  because 
observed  mostly  in  the  cities.  On  the  plantations  the  mixed 
breeds  have  always  been  rare.  In  the  next  place,  the  mixing 
is  becoming  less  and  less  every  day.  In  proportion  as  the 
Negroes  become  more  self-respecting,  they  withdraw  more 
and  more  from  this  kind  of  relation  with  the  whites,  and 
to  some  extent  from  the  mixed  breeds.  The  mixed  breeds 
are  not  increasing  in  number,  and,  as  already  said,  they  will 
either  die  out  or  be  absorbed  into  one  or  other  of  the  pure 
races.  In  addition  to  this  natural  and  spontaneous  with- 
drawal, nearly  if  not  quite  all  of  the  Southern  States  have 
passed  laws  forbidding  mixed  marriages.  In  this  regard, 
therefore,  the  color-line  is  likely  to  be  permanent.* 

DESTINY  OF  THE  LOWER  RACES. 

The  extreme  interest  of  the  general  question  of  the  des- 
tiny of  the  lower  races,  and  its  close  connection  with  the 
question  in  hand,  induces  me  to  digress  here  in  order  to  dis- 
cuss it  very  briefly. 

If  the  views  presented  above  be  true,  then  for  the  lower 
races  everywhere  (leaving  out  slavery)  there  is  eventually 
but  one  of  two  alternatives — viz.,  eitner  extermination  or 
mixture.  But  if  mixture  makes  a  feeble  race,  then  this  also 
is  only  a  slower  process  of  extermination.  Is  extermination, 
then,  the  inexorable  fate  of  all  the  lower  races  ?  Shall  the 
pitiless  law  of  organic  evolution — the  law  of  destruction  of 
the  weak  and  the  survival  of  only  the  strongest  races — be  the 
law  of  human  evolution  also  ?  It  may  indeed  be  so,  but  let 
us  hope  not.  It  may  be  that  there  is  a  way  of  escape.  Let 
us  see. 

I  suppose  the  blue-eyed,  fair-haired  Teuton  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  black  on  the  other,  may  be  regarded  as  ex- 
treme types,  and  that  their  mixture  will  produce  the  worst 
results.  The  mixture  of  the  Spaniard  and  Indian  in  Mexico 
and  South  America  has  produced  a  hardy  and  prolific  race, 
although  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  result  in  social 

*  Some  years  ago  it  was  believed  and  stated  that  the  blacks  were  increasing 
much  faster  than  the  whites.  If  this  were  true,  they  would  soon  overrun  not 
only  the  South,  but  the  whole  country.  But  it  is  not  true.  The  belief  was  based 
on  false  statistics  which  are  now  corrected.  The  problem  is  serious  enough 
without  this  aggravation.  They  are  not  now  increasing  as  fast  as  the  whites,  on 
account  of  the  much  higher  death-rate. 


374  Tin-   !!<«•<>   1'nthlnn   in  Hit' 


and  social  progress  has  not  been  encouraging. 
But  if  we  admit  Mie  result  in  this  rase  a  ;  more  favorable 
than  <h;it  in  the  case  of  the  mixture  of  the  A.nglo-8aXOI) 
and  the  Neijro,  may  \\  e  nol  in  (his  fuel,  glimpse  M.  hope  for 
the  lower  races  in  ivneral  V  The  primary  races,  though  wide 
apart  in  their  extreme  l\  pes,  approach  each  ol  her  on  their 
margins.  Is  it  nol.  possible  lh;it  these  ni:ii^iii;il  vnriclics 
of  primary  r:i<vs  IM;IV  ;ippro:icli  sulliricuMy  nr:ir  (<>  mix  with 
ad  Vantage,  and  lluis  IMMV  l»c  foi-nn-d  sccoiuhn-y  Ivprs  Hint 
IIKIV  nii\  Biiccossfully  with  CMMI  the  cxIrciHc  types?  To 
illustrate:  If  llu*  coinuM-tion  lu-twrcn  Ilic  cxti-cinc  types 
form  an  arch  loo  \vi<le  <o  ln>  slnhle,  ni;iy  not  cadi  extreme 
connect  with  ;i  mon^  intenncdi.-il^  type  <>n  r:ich  side,  and 
form  two  stahle  arehes  which  shall  he  the  ahnl  ineuls  of  ;i, 
still  lii^lu-r  cenlral  arch?  If  mixing  is  possible  at  all,  it, 
would  serin  lhal  it  must  be  by  such  gradual  approaches. 

\o\v,  there  are  many  reasons  for  helievini;-  thai  if  success- 
ful mixing  lx»  at  all  possible,  such  mixing  would  he  heller 
for  humanity  than  extinction  of  the  lower  races  and  the 
survival  of  the  white  nice  alone.  There  are  valnahle  <|tiali- 
ties  ill  the  lower  races  which  ou^ht  not  to  he  lost,  which 
ought  to  be  incorporated  into  the  perfect  ideal  humanity 
for  which  we  hope;  and  this  can  he  done  only,  or  at  least 
most  directly,  by  mixture.  The  elTcct  of  true  breeding  us 
already  seen  mav  be  excellent,  in  one  direction  —  i.  e.,  in  per- 
fecting certain  limited  qualities  —  but  tends  to  fix  and  finally 
to  petrify  character  and  arrest  progress.  Mixing  produces 

a  more  plastic  material,  a  better  olajianioregeneraliidd  and 

therefore  a  more  progressive  type.  Therefore  it  may  well 
be  that,  after  the  best  results  of  breeding  within  the  limits 
of  the  primary  races  have  been  attained  in  the  production 
of  tin*  hi-hot  race  ci\  ili/.ations  in  several  direct  ions,  t  hen 
the  judicious  mixt  lire,  as  explained  above,  of  these  perfected 
varieties,  will  produce  a  ^enerali/ed  t\pe  capable  of  indeli- 
nito  progress  in  all  directions.  Civili/ation,  then,  will 
no  longer  be  An^lo-Saxon,  or  Teutonic,  or  Kuropcan,  or 
Aryan,  or  Caucasian,  but  human.  If  something  like  this 
bo  not  possible,  then  are  the  lower  races  indeed  doomed. 

Or,  to  put  it  another  way  :  Any  ci\  ili/.at  ion  is  lon^-livcd 
in  proportion  as  it  is  genera!—  i.  e.,  as  it  includes  more  of 
the  elements  of  a  complete  humanity.  (Ireek  civilization 
was  admirable,  but  simple,  narrow,  national.  Therefore, 
like  an  annual  plant,  it  ^rew  up  rapidly,  {lowered  and  fruited 
gloriously,  and  died  quickly.  .Roman  civili/ution  was  more 


//""   Problem  in  flu  South.  375 

M)t   national    hut,   Mediterranean.      I 

'ink    more   .-olid    hut  not  perennial.     It 

bed      Modern   cjvili/;r  Aryan.      It    is   still 

•ml,   more  eompi-  iins   mor-  ;itg   of 

humanity,  an-!  fore  .-.till  lon^cr-lr  But  unless  it 

.'Mcnts  of  a  perfect  humanity,  it  also 

If  there  he  indeed  valuable  Dualities  in  the 

of  them  which  ou^ht  to  be 

incorporated  in  a  perfect  humanity,  then  the  ideal   Civiliza- 
tion   D  -,se  also.     The  final   civilisation  will 
•i.-.ive  witlj  human  nature,  with  tlie  earth  sur- 
t.he  life  of  humanity. 

II  <Ji^re.-.-ion  on  tlje  general  ^ur-.-:t.ion  of  the  des- 
tiny of  the  lower  race.-,  ;fe  subject 
in  ha:             -     the  adjuHtment,  in  the  li{(ht  of  the  pr<-eeefing 
princi                                                                   two  races  in    the 
South  on  a  ju.-t  and  rational  basin.     On  this  strictly  prae- 
•ibject  I  Khali    he  brief,  ber-;iu-.                 ;?i  object  is  the 
. tion  of  principles,  not  their  application   in  }>ractical 
politicH.      If  the  o^je.-.tion  be  on!                   in  the  ri^ht  spirit 
and  from  the  .vcientific  Htandpomt,  it  will  be  quickly  solved 
by  practical  men. 

Jem  flivi'le.H  it-elf  into  two  main  branches — viz., 
the  political   and    '  il.     The  political   is   the   more 

irnrnerliate  and  urgent,  and  therefore  Uiken  up  first;  but  the 
ethical  is  more  fundam> 


THF:  I'OMTK •  \  i.  PROBLEM. 

Before  taking  up  any  special  mode  of  solution,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  a  import  al  principle.  The  race 
problem,  like  all  complex  .-:ocial  prof;.  ot  to  be  solved 
at  once  out.  of  hand,  M  many  think.  We  have  had  far  too 
much  of  thin  kind  of  Holution  of  political  problems  already 
'ory.  A  true  solutio:;  -v  firocr-.-:.-:  of  evolution, 

The  final  Holution    is  om'v  :  ndition  of 

by  a  Question  sol'. 

The  only  ^uention  at  any  moment  i-  :   \\  .  best  thin# 

to  be  done-  now  un  .  - 

..ition,  reojui;.  solution. 

if,  What  is  th- 

e  that  all  that  is  necessary  to  H  prob- 

lem i.-,  to  bre;ik  up  the  "solid  South"— that  parties  should 
25 


376  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

divide  as  elsewhere  on  other  lines  than  the  color-line.  This, 
like  many  other  pretended  solutions,  is  a  mere  ignoring  of 
the  problem.  Eventually,  doubtless,  parties  must  so  divide, 
but  not  now,  nor  until  some  other  or  better  line  between  the 
capables  and  the  incapables  be  drawn  and  recognized.  The 
Negro  race  as  a  whole  is  certainly  at  present  incapable  of 
self-government  and  unworthy  of  the  ballot ;  and  their  par- 
ticipation without  distinction  in  public  affairs  can  only  re- 
sult in  disaster.  The  Negroes  themselves  are  beginning  to 
recognize  this.  They  are  withdrawing  themselves  more  and 
more  from  politics.  Everywhere  the  black  vote  is  small  in 
proportion  to  their  numbers.  And  this  is  due  not  wholly  to 
intimidation,  as  many  think.  Doubtless  intimidation  has 
been  used  in  the  South  as  elsewhere ;  perhaps  more  than 
elsewhere,  for  the  motive  was  stronger — viz.,  the  existence  of 
a  civilized  community.  But  this  is  not  the  only  nor  indeed 
the  principal  cause.  The  Negroes  now  see  that  their  first 
hopes  of  the  magical  power  of  the  ballot  were  fallacious. 
They  are  now  beginning  to  believe  that  the  whites  are  not 
their  enemies  but  their  friends,  and  are  better  able  to  take 
care  of  their  interests  than  they  are  themselves.  Thus,  even 
in  the  sea-coast  counties  of  Georgia,  which  I  have  recently 
visited,  where  the  blacks  outnumber  the  whites  in  some 
parts  ten  to  one,  and  where  intimidation  is  impossible  and 
never  was  attempted,  the  county  is  now  represented  in  the 
Legislature  by  white  men  alone.  The  same  thing  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  law  making  the  payment  of  a  poll-tax 
of  one  or  two  dollars  a  qualification  for  voting  practically 
disfranchises  nearly  all  the  blacks ;  not  because  they  can 
not  pay  it,  but  because  to  them  the  privilege  is  not  worth  so 
much. 

I  repeat,  then,  that  the  blacks  as  a  whole  are  unworthy 
of  the  ballot.  The  South  is  not  solid  against  the  North  or 
against  any  party  as  a  party,  but  she  is  solid  for  self-govern- 
ment by  the  white  race  as  the  only  self-governing  race. 
Until  some  better  line  be  drawn  defining  a  self-governing 
class,  she  is  obliged  to  be  solid.  That  some  such  better  line 
will  be  made  I  can  not  doubt,  for  the  color-line  pure  and  sim- 
ple can  not  continue.  It  is  not  only  manifestly  unjust,  and 
therefore  debauching  to  the  political  honesty  of  the  whites, 
but  is  a  constant  source  of  irritation,  and  therefore  fraught 
with  danger. 

But  the  question  returns  :  By  what  just  and  legal  means 
can  we  secure  government  by  a  self-governing  class  alone  ? 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  377 

I  answer  without  hesitation :  By  a  limitation  of  the  ballot, 
by  a  qualification  for  voting,  both  of  education  and  of 
property.  I  see  no  possible  solution  but  this,  and  this  I 
believe  would  be  effectual.  It  would  be  perfectly  just  and 
perfectly  rational.  It  would  exclude  many  whites,  but  only 
such  as  should  be  excluded.  It  would  include  many  blacks, 
but  only  such  as  are  fit  to  vote.  I  said  a  qualification  both 
of  education  and  of  property.  Perhaps  most  persons  will 
agree  to  the  justice  of  the  former ;  but  I  regard  the  latter 
as  by  far  the  more  important.  It  is  so  not  only  nor  mainly 
on  the  ground  usually  assigned — viz.,  its  conservative  tend- 
ency— but  also  and  chiefly  because  it  is  the  best  index  of  a 
self-governing  capacity.  In  the  higher  races,  in  advanced 
stages  of  civilization,  and  in  highly  cultured  communities 
there  are  doubtless  many  men  who  take  no  heed  to  accumu- 
late property,  not,  however,  from  shiftlessness,  but  because 
they  have  higher  and  better  things  to  do.  They  are  so  busy 
with  higher  and  better  things  that  they  have  no  time  to 
make  money.  But  in  uncultured  men  generally,  and  es- 
pecially in  lower  races,  there  is  no  better,  I  might  almost 
say  there  is  no  other,  evidence  of  character  necessary  for 
the  exercise  of  the  ballot  than  the  steady  industry  and  self- 
denial  necessary  to  accumulate  property.  Mere  book  edu- 
cation, on  the  contrary,  though  easily  acquired  by  the 
Negro  on  account  of  his  quick  apprehensiveness,  has  little 
effect  on  character,  and  is  but  small  guarantee  for  self- 
governing  capacity. 

I  would  make  the  qualification  of  both  kinds  small — as 
small  as  is  at  all  consistent  with  effectiveness — because  I  recog- 
nize the  powerfully  educating  effect  of  the  ballot  itself. 
Freedom  educates  for  freedom,  and  therefore  should  be 
given  even  in  larger  measure  than  deserved.  Privilege 
educates  for  the  right  use  of  privilege,  and  therefore  as 
much  should  be  given  as  is  consistent  with  safety.  This  is 
a  true  principle  in  all  education,  whether  of  individuals,  of 
communities,  or  of  races.  But  although  the  ballot  educates 
for  the  right  use  of  the  ballot,  yet  its  reasonable  limitation 
is  a  still  more  potent  educator  ;  for  it  is  the  most  powerful 
of  all  inducements  to  improvement  of  all  kinds. 

The  golden  opportunity  for  the  introduction  of  these 
qualifications  was  certainly  at  the  time  of  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  Southern  States  immediately  after  the  war. 
I  well  remember  that  when  the  constitutional  convention  of 
South  Carolina  under  the  call  of  President  Johnson  met  at 


378  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

Columbia,  although,  not  myself  a  member  of  that  conven- 
tion, I  urged  on  my  friends  who  were  members  the  necessity 
of  opening  at  once  the  franchise  to  both  races,  without  dis- 
tinction, but  making  an  educational  and  property  qualifica- 
tion. But  the  sentiment  of  the  South  was  not  yet  ripe  for 
such  a  policy.  If  such  qualifications  could  have  been  made 
at  that  time,  the  South  would  have  been  saved  all  the  hor- 
rors of  carpet-bag  rule.  But  it  is  vain  to  indulge  regret.  I 
suppose  it  was  impossible  at  that  time,  not  only  because  the 
South  was  unprepared,  but  also  because  even  if  it  had  been 
done  it  would  not  have  been  accepted  by  Congress.  Now, 
however,  that  the  State  governments  are  fully  established, 
it  can  be  done  if  the  whites  really  desire  it.  Some  qualifi- 
cation separating  the  capables  from  the  incapables,  the 
worthy  from  the  unworthy,  is  probably  the  greatest  want  of 
the  country  everywhere.  It  can  be  done  more  easily  at  the 
South  than  anywhere  else,  because  the  necessity  is  greater, 
and  because  of  the  wider  difference  between  the  intelligent 
and  unintelligent  classes  there. 

Some  feeble  attempts  have  been  made  in  this  direction 
in  certain  parts  of  the  South,  and  always  with  the  best 
effects.  In  many  States  a  law  making  payment  of  a  small 
poll-tax  of  one  or  two  dollars  a  condition  of  voting  dis- 
franchises a  large  majority  of  the  ignorant  blacks.  It  dis- 
franchises some  whites,  too,  but  this  is  no  objection. 
Other  and  less  justifiable  but  legal  means  have  been  used  to 
diminish  the  incapable  vote,  such  as  the  eight-ballot-box  law 
in  South  Carolina.  Mississippi  alone  has  gone  still  farther 
in  this  direction,  and  that  because  the  necessity  was  greater 
there  than  in  most  States.  In  the  recent  constitution  of 
that  State  there  is  a  qualification  for  voting,  including  the 
ability  to  read,  or  else  to  understand  and  interpret  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  (a  much  harder  condition  than  mere 
ability  to  read,  but  too  indefinite),  and  also  the  payment  of 
all  taxes,  including  a  poll-tax  of  two  dollars,  for  the  two 
preceding  years.  May  we  not  hope  that  these  qualifications 
will  be  increased  in  amount  and  extended  throughout  the 
South,  and  that  they  will  become  an  entering  wedge  to 
accomplish  the  same  result  throughout  the  whole  country  ? 

It  was  thought  by  some  that  limitation  of  suffrage  would 
diminish  representation  in  Congress.  This  is  still  an  open 


question,  but  probably  it  would  not.  (See  Cooley,  General 
Pro-visions  of  Constitutional  Law,  pp.  263,  264.)  But,  in 
any  case,  if  the  South  is  not  willing  to  sacrifice  some- 


The'  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  379 

thing  for  the  sake  of  good  government,  she  does  not  de- 
serve it.* 

SOME  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  ETHICAL  PROBLEM  DISCUSSED. 

The  classes  of  society,  the  principles  on  which  they  are 
based,  and  how  far  they  are  rational  and  just,  this  is  the 
question  which  must  now  be  discussed,  for  the  so-called 
race-line  is  of  this  nature.  The  whites  and  blacks  at  the 
South  are  absolutely  separated  in  society.  They  have  sepa- 
rate churches,  separate  schools,  separate  colleges,  and  in 
large  measure  separate  cars,  separate  hotels,  etc.  In  the 
present  state  of  feeling  the  Negroes  themselves — many  of 
them — prefer  it  so.  Is  the  state  of  feeling  right  ?  It  is  evi- 
dent that  this  question  requires  a  discussion  of  some  very 
fundamental  ethical  principles. 

Nature  is  so  complex  that  it  can  not  be  understood  until 
simplified  by  classification.  Things  and  phenomena  can  not 
be  dealt  with  as  individuals,  for  they  are  too  numerous  and 
diversified ;  they  must  be  dealt  with  in  groups  or  classes. 
The  grouping  of  forces  and  phenomena  constitutes  physical 
science ;  the  grouping  of  forms  and  objects,  natural  history. 
The  process  of  grouping  in  physical  science  is  called  gen- 
eralization, in  natural  history  classification.  This  grouping 
is  the  most  fundamental  process  in  the  construction  of  sci- 
ence. Either  name  would  do,  but  we  shall  usually  call  it 
classification,  because  we  will  deal  with  grouping  of  forms 
and  objects. 

Now,  man's  mission  on  the  earth  is  to  understand  Nature. 
But  see  the  dilemma  in  which  the  human  mind  finds  itself. 
It  is  impossible  to  advance  a  single  step  in  science — i.  e., 
in  the  rational  comprehension  of  Nature — without  classifica- 
tion ;  and  yet  a  true  classification — i.  e.,  one  that  expresses 
the  true  relations  of  things — is  impossible  without  complete 
scientific  knowledge.  Therefore  he  is  compelled  to  make 
an  arbitrary,  artificial,  provisional  classification  of  some  sort, 
to  enable  him  to  manage  his  material.  Any  classification 
is  better  than  none ;  any  kind  of  order  is  better  than  chaos. 
By  the  use  of  this  provisional  classification  science  or  ra- 

*  Colonization  has  been  proposed  as  an  easy  solution  of  the  problem.  Some 
of  the  most  intelligent  of  the  Negroes  themselves— for  example,  Bishop  Turner, 
of  the  African  Methodist  Church — earnestly  advocate  this  plan.  I  say  nothing 
of  this  plan,  (1)  because  the  Negroes  very  naturally  refuse  to  colonize,  (2)  be- 
cause the  whites  themselves  would  be  loath  to  lose  so  valuable  a  laboring  class, 
and  (3)  because  this  method  would  not  touch  the  general  question  of  race-con-' 
tact. 


380  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

tional  knowledge  is  gradually  accumulated,  and  this  knowl- 
edge becomes,  in  its  turn,  the  basis  of  a  natural  classifica- 
tion. But,  unfortunately,  often,  especially  in  higher  and 
more  complex  departments  of  thought,  the  provisional  char- 
acter of  the  first  classification  is  not  recognized,  and  the 
change  into  a  more  natural  classification,  which  ought  to 
take  place  gradually  as  science  advances,  is  resisted  by  a  too 
rigid  conservatism,  and,  therefore,  can  only  take  place  by 
revolution. 

This  law  of  the  advance  of  rational  thought  is  so  funda- 
mental and  important  that  I  must  try  to  make  it  clear  by 
illustrations.  I  might  use  for  this  purpose  any  department 
of  science,  but  I  select  botany  as  the  best. 

The  object  of  the  botanist  is  to  make  a  perfect  natural 
classification  of  plants — i.  e.,  a  classification  which  shall  ex- 
press perfectly  the  natural  affinities  or  degrees  of  kinship, 
or  order  of  evolution  of  all  plants.  But,  on  the  one  hand, 
it  is  impossible  to  make  such  a  classification  without  ex- 
haustive knowledge  of  plants ;  on  the  other,  it  is  impossible 
to  begin  to  acquire  such  knowledge  without  a  previous 
classification.  How  did  the  botanist  emerge  from  this  di- 
lemma ?  He  made  first  an  artificial  classification.  Under 
the  light  and  guidance  of  this,  scientific  knowledge  became 
possible,  and  by  the  co-operation  of  an  army  of  workers  in 
every  part  of  the  world  it  was  steadily  accumulated.  In 
proportion  as  knowledge  of  true  relations  of  plants  increased 
a  natural  classification  based  on  these  became  possible  and 
gradually  displaced  the  artificial,  though  at  first  not  without 
some  resistance. 

Observe  now  the  difference  between  these  two  kinds  of 
classifications.  The  one  is  the  condition  of  rational  knowl- 
edge, and  the  agent  of  its  initiation,  and  the  other  is  the 
compendious  expression  of  rational  knowledge,  and  the  agent 
of  its  continuous  advance.  The  one  is  of  necessity  perfect, 
rigid,  made  at  once  out  of  hand,  as  all  artificial  things  are ; 
the  other  is  never  perfect,  but  ever  growing,  evolving,  as  all 
natural  things  do,  in  order  to  adapt  itself  to  an  ever-grow- 
ing knowledge,  until  finally  it  again  disappears  in  the  light 
of  a  perfect  knowledge  of  individuals  and  their  relations. 
Thus,  when  rational  knowledge  is  perfect,  like  that  of  God, 
then  classification  or  generalization  will  have  done  its  per- 
fect work  and  disappear.  Or,  to  put  it  in  another  way :  In 
artificial  classification  the  division  lines  between  classes  are 
sharp,  hard,  and  fast ;  in  natural  classification,  and  in  pro- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  381 

portion  as  it  is  natural,  classes  shade  into  each  other  more 
and  more  until  the  division  lines  disappear.  Thus,  the  hu- 
man mind  starting  from  animal  sense-perception  of  indi- 
viduals without  relations,  passes  through  classification,  and 
finally  reaches  perfect  rational  perception  of  individuals  and 
their  relations — from  chaos  through  artificial  order  to  ra- 
tional order. 

This  law  meets  us  in  every  department  of  thought  and  of 
human  activity.  It  meets  us,  therefore,  in  the  classification 
of  society.  The  relations  of  individuals  to  one  another  are 
so  numerous,  diverse,  and  complex  that  they  form  at  first  a 
bewildering  chaos.  Now,  man  is  put  here  in  this  world 
and  the  problem  given  him  to  solve  is  a  rational  classifica- 
tion or  organization  of  society.  But,  on  the  one  hand,  such 
an  organization  is  impossible  without  a  complete  knowledge 
of  human  relations — i.  e.,  a  complete  sociology;  on  the 
other,  such  knowledge  is  impossible  without  a  previous  or- 
ganization. Therefore,  the  first  step  in  civilization  is  the 
classification  of  individuals  on  some  obvious  basis,  however 
artificial  and  arbitrary,  as  the  very  condition  of  civilization 
and  of  rational  knowledge.  Any  classification  is  better 
than  none.  It  may  be  based  on  conquest,  or  on  race,  or  on 
wealth,  or  on  family,  or  on  pursuit  in  life,  or  on  any  other 
obvious  distinction.  Then,  with  the  advance  of  science  or 
rational  knowledge  this  classification  must  be  modified  and 
made  more  and  more  rational.  In  the  ideal  society,  when 
sociology  is  complete  and  the  moral  nature  of  man  perfect, 
when  rational  knowledge  of  human  relations  and  the  will 
to  act  in  accordance  with  these  relations  is  perfect,  then  I 
suppose  classes  of  society,  as  we  now  know  them,  will  have 
served  their  purpose  and  disappear.  In  other  words,  every 
man's  position  in  the  estimation  of  his  fellow-men  will  be 
determined  wholly  by  his  real  worth  in  every  way,  but  espe- 
cially his  intellectual  and  moral  worth.  The  non-recogni- 
tion of  this  law  is  the  cause  of  all  revolutions. 

Now,  this  law  applies,  of  course,  to  the  classes  or  castes  of 
society  as  they  exist  to-day,  and  is  their  sufficient  justifica- 
tion. In  early  stages  of  society  these  are  arbitrary,  artificial, 
rigid,  separated  by  hard  and  fast  lines  impossible  to  over- 
pass. In  so  far  as  they  are  so,  they  are  unnatural  and  oppress- 
ive. ^  But  they  were  thoroughly  recognized  and  regarded  as 
inevitable,  and  society  was  therefore  comparatively  peaceful. 
They  are  now  becoming  less  and  less  rigid,  less  and  less 
impassable,  especially  in  this  country ;  but  also  their  artifi- 


382  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ciality,  their  irrationality,  and  therefore  injustice,  are  more 
and  more  recognized,  and  therefore  society  is  becoming 
more  and  more  restive.  The  time  has  come  when  classes 
of  society  must  on  the  one  hand  be  put  on  a  more  rational 
basis,  and  on  the  other  must  be  recognized  as  a  necessary 
condition  of  civilization. 

Now,  race-classes  not  only  come  under  the  same  head, 
but  are  more  natural  and  rational  than  many  others,  be- 
cause founded  on  a  real  natural  difference — i.  e.,  a  difference 
in  the  grade  of  evolution ;  and,  moreover,  where  the  differ- 
ence is  as  great  as  it  is  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
"Negro,  the  class-distinction  seems  absolutely  necessary,  at 
least  for  the  present.  This  class-distinction,  therefore,  is 
peculiar,  in  that  it  is  more  rational  than  others  in  so  far  as 
it  is  more  natural,  but  less  rational  in  so  far  as  the  separat- 
ing line  (race-line)  is  more  rigid  and  impassable,  and  par- 
takes of  the  nature  of  caste.  This  natural  caste-line  can 
not  be  broken  down,  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  ought  not,  until 
we  understand  better  than  we  now  do  the  laws  of  the  effects 
of  race-mixture.  If  the  effects  of  the  mixture  of  the  ex- 
treme primary  races  be  bad,  not  only  immediately,  but  for 
all  time  and  under  any  mode  of  regulation,  then  the  law  of 
organic  evolution,  the  law  of  destruction  of  the  lower  races 
and  the  survival  of  only  the  higher,  must  prevail  and  the 
race-line  must  never  be  broken  over.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
mixture  of  the  extreme  primary  races  can  in  any  way  and 
by  any  rational  mode  of  regulation  be  made  to  elevate  the 
human  race,  then  the  race-line  must  and  ought  to  be  broken 
down  and  complete  mixture  must  eventually  take  place. 
We  are  not  yet  prepared  to  speak  confidently  on  this  subject. 

Meanwhile,  the  exercise  of  mutual  forbearance  and  kind- 
ness— in  other  words,  of  a  true  rational  spirit — will  do 
much  e¥ea  to  mitigate  or  even  to  remove  entirely  the  evils 
of  the  race-line.  We  must  wait  and  let  the  problem  solve 
itself.  If  only  the  spiritual  brotherhood  be  realized,  it  will 
matter  little  if  the  physical  distinction  remain. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  383 

'XUv-^    'fiA^-* 

.  ~^-~~ 

-    /^-^i^U^-ta—    rt-C-C*^  ?  ^U-^~ *-, 

[     ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  JAMES  A.  SKILTON: 

I  was  extremely  fortunate  in  having  the  privilege  of  opening  the 
discussion  of  the  paper  read  by  Prof.  Mason  on  the  Land  Problem, 
and  am  not  less  so  in  having  the  privilege  of  opening  the  discussion  of 
the  thoroughly  scientific  and  very  valuable  paper  read  this  evening  by 
the  distinguished  president  of  the  American  Society  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science. 

Prof.  Le  Conte  has  treated  the  subject  not  only  from  the  scientific 
and  evolutionary  point  of  view,  but  also  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
sincere  and  thoughtful  man  of  Southern  birth  and  experience.  It  has 
been  my  fortune,  however,  to  have  approached  the  subject  from  the 
opposite  point  of  view  of  Northern  birth  and  experience,  supple- 
mented by  an  extended  and  unique  experience  in  the  same  Southern 
State,  in  the  "  black  belt,"  and  practically  in  the  locality  of  Prof.  Le 
Conte's  birth  and  early  life,  where  before  the  war  I  took  an  organized 
force  of  white  laborers  and  had  the  immediate  control  at  different 
times  of  free  white  labor  and  slave  labor,  with  abundant  opportunity 
for  instructive  study  and  comparison.  In  so  far  as  I  was  capable,  I 
then,  and  have  since,  applied  to  the  study  of  the  subject  scientific  and 
evolutionary  principles,  and,  as  for  my  own  candor  and  sincerity,  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  these  may  be  considered  as  necessarily  implied  in 
the  application  of  such  principles. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  begin  to  study  Southern  conditions  on  the  spot 
in  December,  1852,  and  to  approach  the  subject  with  caution,  followed 
by  years  of  deliberation,  only  to  reach  the  broader  conclusions  I  shall 
present  to  you  under  the  illuminating  processes  and  effects  of  growing 
secession  and  war  and  what  has  since  developed  from  them.  When 
every  man  of  my  white  force  was  struck  down  with  malarial  fever  and 
I  was  left  alone  and  unaided  to  take  care  of  my  house,  stock,  and 
crops,  I  began  to  feel  that  my  tuition  in  Southern  conditions  was  com- 
mencing in  earnest ;  and  when  forced  to  hire  slaves  to  take  their 
places  or  quit,  I  faced  the  situation,  hired  the  slaves,  and  in  due  time 
got  my  practical  experience  on  the  slave-labor  side  as  I  had  before 
done  on  the  free-labor  side,  both  in  a  Southern  locality.  Furthermore, 
with  the  slaves  employed  to  take  the  places  of  white  men  disabled  by 
malarial  fevers,  I  not  only  came  into  direct  contact  as  master  by  hire, 
but,  being  recognized  by  them  as  coming  from  the  land  of  freedom,  had 


384  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

to  an  unusual  degree  their  confidence  and  trust  in  general,  and  fre- 
quently as  to  the  deeper  experiences  of  their  personal  and  family 
lives. 

It  is  usually  very  instructive,  after  having  been  put  through  a  hard 
curriculum  and  learned  your  lesson,  to  watch  others — those  of  differ- 
ent types,  origins,  and  capacities — while  they  are  being  put  through 
the  same  curriculum.  This  advantage  I  had  in  scores  if  not  in  hun- 
dreds of  instances  where  the  new  scholars  were  Northern  men  or  for- 
eigners, newer  or  later  comers  in  the  South  than  myself,  and  thus  have 
been  able  to  review,  reconsider,  or  verify  my  own  observations  and  con- 
clusions times  without  number. 

Let  me  claim,  then,  that  what  I  have  to  say  is  not  presented  as  the 
view  of  a  man  of  Northern  birth  who  has  recently  begun  the  study  of 
the  subject,  and,  fresh  from  his  first  excursion,  attempts  to  solve  the 
Southern  problem  through  the  opportunities  of  a  week's  travel  and  of 
glimpses  caught  through  the  windows  of  a  railroad  car  or  of  lessons 
learned  in  conversation  with  casual  fellow-travelers.  Having  lived 
there  and  engaged  in  business,  become  a  citizen,  a  voter,  and  subjected 
myself  to  all  the  influences  of  the  Southern  environment,  I  certainly 
have  had  the  opportunity  of  obtaining  an  insight  deeper  than  that  of 
a  transient  person  and  of  learning  to  understand  and  sympathize  with 
the  Southerner  in  the  stupendous  difficulties  of  his  problem.  In  so 
doing  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say,  nevertheless,  that,  scientific  and  evo- 
lutionary principles  aiding  me,  1  have  never  found  myself  compelled 
to  sacrifice  the  broader  Northern  principles,  properly  so  called,  in 
which  I  was  born  and  bred ;  certainly  not  my  faith  in  freedom. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  the  usual  or  current  Northern  and  South- 
ern views  are  neither  of  them  sound  or  correct,  and  they  never  have 
been  so.  The  real  truth  consists,  and  always  has  consisted,  in  a  newer 
composite  view  that  takes  in  parts  of  each,  mainly  the  facts  of  the 
Southern  view  and  the  aspirations  and  hopes  of  the  Northern  view. 

I  have  dwelt  so  much  upon  preliminaries  because  many  years  of  ex- 
perience have  shown  me  the  futility  of  the  attempt  to  aid  people  to 
understand  the  real  South  unless  they  can  be  somehow,  at  least  tem- 
porarily, dislocated  from  contemplation  of  the  old  view  and  so  pre- 
pared to  consider  a  different  view. 

To  me,  then,  this  opportunity  is  so  unique  that  it  can  not  well  be  re- 
peated. I  shall  therefore  spend  no  time  on  direct  criticism  of  the 
paper  of  Prof.  Le  Conte  in  detail,  but,  hoping  to  equal  him  only  in 
candor  and  sincerity,  prefer  to  start  from  the  opposite  geographical 
point  of  the  compass,  and,  in  so  far  as  the  time  permits,  place  my 
own  thought  parallel  with  his  for  the  purposes  of  comparison  as  the 
method  most  likely  to  be  instructive  and  beneficial ;  for  then  in  those 


Tfie  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  385 

matters  in  which  there  is  agreement  there  will  be  re-enforcement,  and 
in  those  matters  in  which  there  is  disagreement,  if  any,  there  will  be 
opportunity  for  further  study  if  necessary. 

From  my  own  point  of  view  the  race  question  may  be  treated — in- 
deed, must  be  treated — as  a  continuation  or  extension  of  the  land  ques- 
tion.* Either  actually  or  by  implication  the  facts  of  the  race  question 
and  race  conditions  being  placed  alongside  of  or  correlated  with  those 
of  land  questions  and  conditions,  which  as  the  product  of  an  almost 
purely  selfish  commercial  policy  have  resulted  in  destroying  oppor- 
tunity for  proper  growth  and  development,  the  inference  will  be  either 
drawn  or  held  in  mind  that  the  very  existence  of  a  race  question  is 
due  to  the  mismanagement  or  misdirection  of  economic  forces,  and 
that  the  solution  of  the  question  can  only  be  found  in  a  change  of 
commercial  policy  dictated  by  rightly  managed  and  directed  economic 
principles  and  forces;  and  I  shall  further  proceed  on  the  larger  gen- 
eralization advanced  by  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  in  his  letter  read  at  the 
last  meeting,  to  the  effect  that  our  race  question  is  "  simply  the  prob- 
lem of  man,"  and  no  mere  negro  question  or  Afro  or  Afric-American 
question. 

But  here  let  me  dispose  of  one  branch  of  the  topic  in  a  word.  If  the 
system  of  land  barbarization,  which  beyond  question  has  located  the 
negro  where  he  is  and  to  some  extent  made  him  what  we  find  him 
there,  is  to  continue,  then  for  me  the  race  question  is  already  settled — 
I  do  not  wish  to  see  the  white  man  enter  a  contest  the  goal  of  which 
is  permanent  barbarism.  By  all  means  let  the  most  barbarous  or  the 
least  civilized  race  capture  and  possess  that  goal  without  contest  on 
the  part  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong,  if  natural  or  climatic  law,  the 
laws  of  commerce  or  society,  present  no  alternative. 

The  really  difficult  parts  of  the  race  problem  are  chiefly  due  to  hal- 
lucinations or  misinformations.  When  these  are  disposed  of  it  may 
be  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  any  race  problem  remains.  When  we 
get  below  them  and  among  the  real  facts  of  the  case,  we  find  that  the 
negro  is  as  much  the  product  of  evolution  as  any  other  race,  that  he 
belongs  by  nature  and  by  history  to  the  hotter  and  necessarily  more 
backward  regions  of  the  world,  to  and  in  which  he  is  constitutionally 
suited  and  the  white  race  totally  unsuited.  Indeed,  these  facts  show 
that  while  the  blacks  may  not  have  the  qualities  required  to  civilize 
the  temperate  zones,  the  whites  have  shown  no  capacity  for  civilizing 
the  tropics,  and  that  the  two  races  are  therefore  quits.  Seemingly,  we 
would  prefer  to  take  the  negro  out  of  his  natural  domain,  in  violation 
of  evolutionary  law  and  result,  and  force  him  to  adapt  himself  to  a  new 
habitat  instead  of  building  on  what  has  been  done  by  Nature  in  the 

*  See  The  Land  Problem,  pp.  Ill  and  131. 


386  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

past  and  helping  to  civilize  his  habitat  and  thereby  the  man  and  the  race. 
If  the  white  race  would  first  really  develop  the  fit  civilization  of  its  own 
habitat  by  following  the  true  lines  of  sociological  growth,  it  would 
then  be  in  a  position  to  assist  the  negro  to  do  the  same  thing  where  he 
belongs,  each  thus  aiding  and  neither  hindering  the  other.  Looking  at 
the  matter  in  this  way,  we  may  see  that  our  duty  is  to  build  on  the  negro 
as  he  is  rather  than  to  attempt  to  reconstruct  him  on  the  plan  of  the  white 
man.  It  is  certain  that  the  negro  is  in  the  world  for  a  purpose,  with  a 
fitness  at  least  to  accomplish  beneficent  ends,  if  we  can  manage  to  un- 
derstand, respect  and  aid  in  the  application  of  the  necessary  means  to  ac- 
complish those  ends.  And  when  we  look  him  over  and  over  and  through 
and  through,  glancing  our  eyes  between  times  at  the  conditions  and  pos- 
sibilities of  the  hotter  regions  of  the  world  to  which  he  belongs,  we  will, 
if  sufficiently  clear-sighted,  begin  to  suspect  that  about  the  worst  use  we 
could  put  him  to  would  be  to  make  him  over  on  the  white  man's  pattern ; 
unless  it  be  the  substitution  of  a  mongrel  race  in  the  place  of  the  two  races. 

There  is  one  almost  universal  hallucination  lying  here  at  the  thresh- 
old and  requiring  removal  before  we  can  even  properly  enter  upon 
discussion.  In  the  first  place,  slavery  was  essentially  a  condition.  It 
never  was  essentially  an  institution.  It  has  been  our  great  mistake 
that  we  have  treated  it  as  such,  and  only  as  such.  It  was  a  growth — 
in  fact,  an  evolutionary  growth.  And  as  a  condition  it  never  was 
destroyed,  never  can  be  destroyed,  either  by  a  proclamation  of  emanci- 
pation, by  a  mere  constitutional  amendment,  or  by  any  other  mere 
institutional  means  or  method.  Without  going  into  an  explanation 
of  these  statements,  it  is  sufficient  to  quote  the  words  of  the  master : 

"  No  one  can  be  perfectly  free  till  all  are  free ;  no  one  can  be  perfectly 
moral  till  all  are  moral ;  no  one  can  be  perfectly  happy  till  all  are  happy." 

In  other  words,  freedom,  morality,  and  happiness  must  be  universal 
or  they  can  not  exist.  They  must  be  the  product  of  a  universal  con- 
dition— a  condition  in  which  the  unity  is  created  out  of  diversity  by 
growth,  by  evolution. 

While  the  ex-slaves  of  the  South  have  since  emancipation,  so  called, 
come  into  a  time  when  they  can  claim  political  freedom  and  point  to 
the  fundamental  law  in  support  of  that  claim,  they  still  remain  under 
the  dominion  of  the  same  economic  and  industrial  law  and  condition 
in  and  by  which  they  were  originally  made  slaves,  and  can  never  be- 
come in  fact  free  men — without  something  more  than  mere  institu- 
tional change.  Having  no  genuine  economic  freedom,  they  can  have 
no  real  political  or  social  freedom. 

There  is  another  point  that  needs  clearing  up  to  the  Northern  mind. 
Under  slavery  the  slave  was  in  essential  particulars  the  pet  of  the  sys- 
tem. His  white  master,  the  master's  wife,  and  their  children  looked 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  387 

after  him  with  the  most  earnest  and  incessant  care  ;  not  only  did  the 
lady  of  the  plantation  personally  attend  and  nurse  him  when  sick,  but 
when  he  was  assaulted  the  slave  had  his  master  for  a  protector ;  and  I 
have  myself  seen  an  avenging  master  pursuing  the  white  murderer  of 
his  slave,  pistol  in  hand,  with  the  same  terrible  expression  on  his  face 
that  he  might  have  had  if  his  son  instead  of  his  slave  had  been  the 
victim  of  attack.  In  slavery,  therefore,  the  position  of  the  slave  was 
in  essential  respects  ostensibly  better  than  that  of  the  poor  white  who 
lived  on  his  little  clearing  near  by,  and  had  no  protector  or  avenger 
but  himself.  For  the  slave  was  assisted  by  his  master  in  his  struggle 
for  survival  and  elevation  in  the  scale  of  life.  So  far  as  this  is  con- 
cerned, therefore,  emancipation  threw  the  slave  back  on  to  the  same 
level  with  the  poor  white,  leaving  him  only  the  aid  of  the  past  benefits 
and  protection  of  slavery  to  give  him  help  in  the  battle  of  the  future, 
certain  to  be  of  doubtful  value. 

And,  fruitful  as  this  age  has  been  in  opera  bouffe,  it  is  doubtful  if 
any  production  in  that  line  equals  the  performance  of  the  abolitionists 
when,  immediately  after  the  war,  they  assembled  in  solemn  council, 
disbanded  their  abolition  societies,  delivered  their  orations  of  self- 
praise,  and  marched  off  from  the  battle-field  with  drums  beating  and 
banners  flaunting  the  air,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  results  of  the 
war  furnished  them  the  opportunity  to  begin  the  battle  for  freedom 
as  a  condition  in  the  South.  No  history  of  the  past  and  no  working 
scheme  for  the  elevation  of  the  negro  in  the  future  can  miss  or  ignore 
the  deep  significance  of  this  point  and  be  of  any  value  whatever. 
Practically  the  abolitionists  treated  freedom  as  well  as  slavery  as  insti- 
tutional in  character  and  origin ;  they  understood  neither  the  ultimate 
cause  nor  the  cure  of  slavery,  but  left  the  matter  of  its  abolishment  in 
such  confusion  that  we  may  credit  them  with  the  creation  of  the  prob- 
lem we  are  discussing,  and  for  which  no  clear  solution  of  their  sugges- 
tion yet  appears  after  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  further 
study  and  experience.  In  fact,  the  negro  was  practically  abandoned  by 
his  so-called  friends  and  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  his  so-called 
enemies  and  former  masters ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  masters  had 
insisted  that  they  could  frame  no  theory  or  system  according  to  which 
the  industries  of  the  South  could  be  conducted  on  the  basis  of  freedom, 
both  the  abolitionists  and  others  at  the  North  abandoned  the  negro, 
substantially,  to  his  own  devices,  after  giving  him  the  franchise  as  the 
sole  and  sufficient  panacea  for  all  his  ills  past  and  to  come. 

The  point  I  make  is  that,  like  the  slave-holders,  the  abolitionists  had 
no  practical  and  just  solution  to  offer,  and  that  they  ran  away  and 
turned  the  problem  over  to  others,  while  claiming  credit  for  a  solution 
that  was  no  solution.  Not  only  was  there  no  recognition  by  abolition- 


388  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ists  then  that  slavery  was  the  product  of  economic  action,  but,  as 
many  notable  examples  show,  the  economic  policy*  frequently,  if  not 
generally,  advocated  by  them  before  and  since  the  war  was  exactly 
that  which  took  away  "  opportunity,"  and  thereby  produced  slave  con- 
ditions in  the  one  case  and  actually  prevented  the  development  of  free 
conditions  in  the  other. 

The  dominant  Southern  idea  before,  during,  and  for  a  time  after  the 
war  was  that  under  emancipation  and  freedom  the  negro  would  cer- 
tainly perish.  Historical  facts  and  evolutionary  principles  coincide 
with  the  proposition  that  the  laborer  is  the  member  of  society  in  and 
through  whom  that  society  survives,  and  that  the  so-called  aristocrat 
is  the  man  who  perishes.  If,  therefore,  the  solution  of  the  race  prob- 
lem in  the  South  is  the  answer  to  the  question,  who  will  survive  and 
eventually  rule  the  region  now  occupied  by  the  negro,  mainly  in  the 
black  belt,  as  a  mere  race  contest  in  the  midst  of  unchanged  economic 
status  and  action !  The  only  thing  left  to  be  said  is  that  the  negro 
will  unquestionably  survive  and  possess  the  land,  and  the  relative 
status  of  the  two  races  in  that  region  will  eventually  be  changed  in 
his  favor.  That  is  to  say,  if  the  industrial  and  economic  conditions 
that  have  caused  his  numerical  predominance  in  that  region  are  to 
continue,  he  as  their  fit  product  will  certainly  survive  and  win  ;  and 
with  him  an  ethical,  intellectual,  and  social  standard  of  a  co-ordinate 
character,  tempered  by  the  limited  and  inadequate  eleemosynary  aid 
of  his  Northern  friends,  will  also  win.  For,  as  these  friends  are  only 
now  beginning  to  discover,  they  have  labor  problems  at  home  at  the 

*  I  mean  the  free-trade  policy,  and  have  particularly  in  mind  my  friend 
and  pastor  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  his  immediate  followers.  Even  now  that 
he  is  dead,  I  believe  that,  unless  his  influence  in  this  direction  can  be  checked  and 
counteracted,  far  greater  injury  will  come  (not  only  to  the  ex-slave,  so  called, 
but  to  mankind)  than  of  service  from  his  life  and  work,  great  as  that  service 
seems  to  me  to  have  been.  I  do  not  undertake  to  decide  the  question,  but  only 
to  raise  it  for  consideration,  and  this  in  the  interest  of  his  future  fame  as  the 
ages  come  and  go. 

The  history  of  the  nomenclature  of  abolition,  itself  and  alone,  sustains,  if  it 
does  not  establish,  my  view.  Primarily  and  derivatively  abolition  is  abolescence, 
or  growth  from  the  thing  abolished.  Webster  so  derives  and  defines  the  word. 
But  The  Century  Dictionary  distinctly  shows  the  influence  and  effect  of  aboli- 
tionist philosophy  and  action  during  the  past  fifty  years,  in  the  all  but  complete 
elimination  of  the  idea  of  growth  from  the  current  definition  of  the  word,  and 
the  substitution  of  ideas  purely  mechanical  and  artificial  in  its  place. 

The  favorite  word  emancipation,  defining  the  abolitionist  achievement,  com- 
pletes the  demonstration.  Whether  the  release  be  from  the  hand  of  purchase  or 
from  that  of  capture,  the  expression  is  entirely  and  carefully  mechanical,  and  it 
follows  the  hard,  unyielding  Roman  law  out  of  which  the  stiff,  wooden  system  of 
our  present  social  structure  has  been  largely  built,  and  into  which  it  is  one  of  our 
objects  to  somehow  breathe  the  breath  of  something  like  life  and  growth.  Abo- 
litionism has,  therefore,  not  only  failed  to  apply  the  necessary  evolutionary  prin- 
ciples of  growth  to  the  solution  of  the  slavery  and  race  problems,  but,  in  addition 
to  debasing  our  political  methods  to  the  level  of  the  inorganic,  has  done  the  same 
thing  for  the  English  language  and  the  nomenclature  of  the  subject,  and  even 
for  its  very  name.  In  other  words,  abolitionism  has  betrayed  the  fundamental 
principle  of  its  propaganda  as  expressed  in  the  title  it  so  proudly  wears.  And  as 
to  method,  it  set  the  bad  example  which  other  reforms  are  now  fatally  following 
because  of  its  supposed  success. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  389 

North  to  solve,  for  which  no  solution  yet  appears,  that  must  tax 
Northern  resources  to  the  verge  of  failure  at  least.  That  region  will 
then  become  substantially  only  a  possibly  better  Africa,  with  which 
American  statesmanship  must  deal  on  that  comparatively  low  level ; 
for  the  Southern  poor  white,  although  always  free  politically,  has 
not  been  able  to  rise  above  and  out  of  the  characteristic  Southern 
status.  Nor  will  the  man  of  the  inferior  race  be  able  to  do  so,  as  we 
must  conclude  when  we  consider  the  lesser  opportunities  he  has  had 
here  and  elsewhere  for  ages  past. 

The  significant  fact  mentioned  by  Prof.  Le  Conte  as  to  the  want  of 
return  to  him,  ever  since  emancipation,  from  lands  that  had  supported 
his  ancestors  and  their  slaves  for  generations,  shows  at  least  a  tend- 
ency toward  the  disappearance  of  the  white  man  and  his  civilization 
from  the  black  belt  first  of  all. 

But  does  that  portion  of  the  United  States  ultimately  belong  to 
the  negro  through  ethnological,  climatic,  economic,  and  industrial,  or, 
in  other  words,  through  ultimate  evolutionary  title  deeds  f  That  ter- 
ritory was  not  his  original  habitat ;  he  was  dragged  into  it  by  the 
force  of  barbarous  economic  principles  and  practice.  In  climate  and 
in  almost  every  other  respect  it  is  unlike  any  other  habitat  in  which 
unmodified  evolutionary  law  and  development  have  located  him.  His 
African  home  lies  between  the  isothermal  lines  of  68°  F.  The  black 
belt  lies  entirely  above  and  outside  of  that  line  and  in  the  climatic 
home  of  the  white  race.  That  region  belongs  climatically  either  to 
the  white  man  or  to  one  of  the  other  races ;  primarily  to  the  red  race, 
whose  problem  is  being  rapidly  decided  by  extinction,  somewhat  on 
the  theory  of  General  Sherman — that  the  only  good  Indian  is  a  dead 
Indian.  And  in  so  far  as  the  red  man  had  prior  title,  the  white  man 
is  his  natural  heir  and  successor,  and  not  the  black  man,  notwithstand- 
ing the  white  man,  like  the  black  man,  belongs  to  an  imported  race. 
As  to  the  future  and  the  right  of  the  negro  to  continue  in  dominant 
occupancy  of  the  South,  or  any  part  of  it,  as  before  intimated,  it  de- 
pends, I  may  say,  entirely  on  the  highest  ideal  status  of  civilization 
possible  of  achievement  in  that  region. 

As  for  myself,  that  question  was  experimented  with  and  decided 
on  the  spot  in  favor  of  the  white  man  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  and 
the  development  of  evolutionary  science  and  philosophy  within  that 
time  has  furnished  a  succession  of  confirmations  of  the  conclusion. 
After  myself  working  in  the  field  with  white  men,  and  also  with  slaves, 
I  am  prepared  to  say  that  the  only  seemingly  natural  and  important 
obstruction  or  hindrance  to  the  occupation  of  that  country  and  to  the 
performance  of  the  necessary  labor  everywhere  for  its  development  by 
the  white  man,  is,  not  high  temperature,  but  the  presence  in  many  lo- 


390  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

calities  of  malaria,  to  which  the  white  man  is  only  less  resistant  *  than 
the  black  man.  And  it  is  both  a  scientific  and  a  historical  fact  that 
the  malaria  is  the  direct  product  of  a  barbarous  economic  system 
which  produces  the  land  barbarization,  and  slavery,  of  which  it  is  a 
symptom.  It  has  not  always  been  dominant  there  in  the  past,  and 
therefore  may  not  continue  to  be  dominant  in  the  future,  under  a  dif- 
ferent system.  It  has  increased  co-ordinately  with  slavery. 

Does  it  seem  possible  or  probable  that  a  region  of  country  located  so 
near  elevated  regions  manifestly  the  natural  home  of  the  white  man,  and 
the  white  man  of  civilization,  can  belong  scientifically  and  naturally,  in 
this  age,  to  the  black  man.  as  its  dominant  occupier  and  exploiter  ¥ 

What  then  is  to  be  said  about  the  physical  degeneracy  of  Confeder- 
ate soldiers  of  those  regions  who  outmarched  and  outfought  Union 
soldiers  so  frequently  during  the  war? 

What  about  the  lecturer  of  the  evening,  president  of  the  leading 
scientific  association  of  America,  a  leader  in  evolutionary  study  and 
thought,  indeed,  in  important  departments  the  leader,  in  America, 
and  known  to  be  such  throughout  Europe ;  and,  besides,  a  long  list  of 
distinguished  names  of  several  generations  in  the  same  family  ?  This, 
too,  not  an  isolated,  exceptional  instance.  Liberty  County,  Georgia, 
where  he  was  born  and  bred,  was,  many  generations  since,  settled  by 
people  from  New  England,  who  started  from  good  old  Dorchester, 
Mass.,  as  did  the  first  settlers  of  Windsor  and  Hartford,  Conn.,  re-en- 
forced by  a  strong  contingent  of  Huguenot  blood.  I  venture  to  say 
that  no  purely  agricultural  county  in  the  United  States  has  produced 
a  greater  number  of  distinguished  men  than  that  county.  Early  in 
the  fifties  I  became  acquainted  with  a  number  of  its  inhabitants,  saw 
many  more,  and  learned  their  history.  Liberty  County  touches  salt 
water  between  the  Savannah  and  Altamaha  Rivers.  It  is  marked  on 
the  map  as  black  as  the  blackest  in  the  black  belt,  its  oldest  town  Dor- 
chester. As  I  saw  and  knew  them,  they  were  large,  finely  built,  red- 
cheeked,  masterful  men — more  like  the  original  type  of  New  England 
settler  than  any  other  men  I  ever  saw,  even  in  New  England. 

Of  course  the  uneducated  mind  accepts  what  is  as  what  must  be ; 
but  the  mind  imbued  with  evolutionary  ideas  recognizes  it  as  a  funda- 
mental principle  that  what  now  is  can  not  continue  to  be  ;  for,  unless 
progress  is  made,  decline  is  inevitable.  The  causes  which  have  bar- 
barized land  and  the  people  living  on  it  continuing,  through  increased 
soil  exhaustion,  deeper  barbarism  is  certain  to  be  reached. 

*  The  negro's  power  of  resisting  malaria  seems  to  have  declined  in  his  new 
home  in  the  South.  I  found  the  chief  difference  between  the  two  races  in  the 
matter  of  resisting  malarial  poisons  to  be  that  whereas  the  white  man  could 
neither  work  nor  eat,  the  negro  could  eat  but  not  work.  And  in  this  fact,  also, 
we  may  find  a  hint  as  to  survival  and  eventual  lapse  into  savagery  and  wilder- 
ness if  the  conditions  continue. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  391 

There  was  a  time  in  the  early  history  of  the  black  belt — in  its 
eastern  part — before  land  barbarization  had  done  its  work  and  the 
slave  system  had  been  developed,  when  malaria  did  not  prevail,  and  it 
is  only  a  question  of  a  possible  civilized  and  civilizing  method  of 
treating  the  soil  as  the  result  of  which  malaria  may  be  eliminated. 
When  that  method  is  adopted,  the  atmospheric  temperature  of  the 
country  will  be  found  not  unsuitable  or  deleterious  to  the  white 
laborer,  and  the  superior  value  of  the  Southern  products  will  give  the 
white  man  a  much  greater  return  for  the  same  labor,  as  compared 
with  the  grain-producing  regions  of  the  North.  When  to  the  opportu- 
nities of  the  field  are  added  those  of  the  factory,  and  the  manufacture 
of  cotton  in  or  near  the  place  of  its  production,  an  enormous  increase 
of  white  population  will  certainly  take  place ;  and  rich  as  the  region  is 
in  deposits  of  phosphates  and  other  marine  products,  capable  as  it  is  of 
producing  enormous  crops  of  vegetable  food  suitable  only  for  con- 
sumption near  its  place  of  production,  and  fit  to  give  the  white  man 
physical  strength  and  intellectual  force,  it  certainly  may  be  expected 
that,  even  with  no  removal  of  the  negro  as  a  race,  the  country  will  be- 
come possessed  by  the  white  man  in  such  force  and  numbers  as  to  place 
the  negro  in  the  same  relative  position  that  he  occupies  at  the  North. 
This  will  keep  the  political  and  social  power  of  those  regions  in  the 
hands  of  the  race  occupying  the  Eastern,  Middle,  Western,  and  Pacific 
States — one  and  homogeneous,  and  settle  the  race  question  in  the 
South  as  it  has  done  elsewhere. 

Under  the  exigencies  of  the  war,  mechanics  were  in  great  demand 
in  the  South,  and  the  "  black  belt,"  even,  became  dotted  with  develop- 
ing manufacturing  enterprises  which  continued  to  flourish  down  to 
Appomattox  day,  and  under  a  proper  system  there  is  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  be  revived  and  become  permanent. 

It  will  be  impossible  on  this  occasion  to  even  catalogue  the  forces 
and  principles  that  will  support  that  movement  in  civilizing  this 
region  when  once  the  corner  is  turned.  The  story  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden  does  not  furnish  the  principal  evidence  that  through  degrada- 
tion man  and  vegetation  suffer  together,  while  thorns  and  thistles 
flourish.  Science  teaches  the  same  lesson.  The  history  of  the  South 
confirms  it.  The  barbarization  of  the  land  and  its  people  is  found  to 
be  both  coincident  and  co-ordinate  with  the  deterioration  of  the  fiber 
of  the  cotton  in  length,  quality,  and  value,  as  the  strength  of  the  soil 
diminishes.  When  the  system  is  changed  and  soil  enrichment  takes 
the  place  of  soil  impoverishment,  exactly  the  opposite  will  occur,  the 
staple  will  be  increased  in  length  of  fiber,  improved  in  quality  and 
quantity,  other  kinds  of  plant  life  will  also  thrive  and  improve,  and, 
step  by  step,  the  problems  of  man,  society,  and  the  state  will  be  co- 
26 


392  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ordinately  and  coincidently  advanced  and  solved.  No  such  develop- 
ment, however,  can  occur  except  with  and  through  an  entire  abandon- 
ment of  the  old  system  and  an  increase  of  common  interest  and  com- 
mercial relations  between  the  farms  and  shops  of  the  North  and  the 
farms  and  shops  of  the  South,  and  also  between  the  cities  of  the  North 
and  the  cities  of  the  South ;  in  fact,  between  the  two  hitherto  diverse 
and  antagonistic  civilizations.  The  result  of  this  diversity — which 
includes  diversity  of  interests — has  been  war  in  the  past  and  will  in- 
evitably be  war  in  the  future,  in  one  form  or  another,  unless  a  law  of 
harmony  is  discovered  and  put  in  practice.  A  result  of  proper  in- 
creased commercial  exchange  between  the  North  and  the  South  would 
be  a  tendency  to  check  soil  exhaustion,  effect  soil  enrichment  in  both 
regions,  and  bring  about  unity  of  interests.  But  a  most  important 
and  further  effect  of  a  dominant  white  civilization,  not  only  in  the 
upland  region  of  the  South  but  also  in  the  cotton  and  lowland  region, 
must  be  the  development  of  increased  commercial  interchange  between 
the  people  of  these  regions  and  the  adjacent  peoples  of  the  West 
Indian,  Mexican,  Central  American,  and  South  American  regions,  the 
more  accessible  and  near-by  portions,  of  course,  having  the  advantage, 
other  things  being  equal.  One  of  our  statesmen  said,  during  the  San 
Domingo  debate,  that  republics  should  "  beware  of  the  tropics,"  refer- 
ring evidently  to  the  effects  of  the  overmastering  power  of  vegetal 
growth  in  preventing  or  checking  the  development  of  man  and  society. 
Evolutionary  economics  clearly  points  to  the  gradual  movement  to- 
ward equilibration  of  agricultural  wealth  between  the  lands  of  the 
tropic  and  the  temperate  zones  as  the  means  of  benefiting  the  peoples 
of  both,  and  therefore  to  the  true  basis  for  a  scientific  commercial 
system  not  only  for  America  but  for  the  world.  Such  commercial  re- 
lations will  inevitably  be  beneficial  to  the  West  Indies,  and  must  lead 
to  the  ending  of  European  domination  therein,  to  more  and  more 
affiliation  with  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  eventually  to  the 
furnishing  of  a  market  and  opportunity  for  the  free  black  labor  of  the 
South  to  emigrate  to  the  West  India  Islands,  there  to  find  increased 
reward  and  a  more  natural  climate,  through  the  increased  demand  in 
the  near-by  South  for  all  sorts  and  kinds  of  tropical  productions,  and 
a  counter-demand  in  those  islands  for  the  productions  of  all  parts  of 
the  United  States.  Under  this  condition  of  things  there  would  be  a 
tendency  and  movement  of  agricultural  products,  and  the  means  they 
furnish  for  the  enrichment  of  the  soil,  from  the  tropical  regions  of  the 
farther  south  to  the  Southern  portion  of  the  United  States  first,  and 
eventually  to  the  Northern  portion  of  the  United  States. 

The  history  of  Florida  and  its  renewed  relations  with  the  North 
and  its  people  since  1865  is  an  instructive  study  in  this  connection. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  393 

In  1835  these  relations  were  cut  or  destroyed  by  the  ruin  of  the  orange 
groves  in  that  year,  the  effects  of  which  lasted  for  thirty  years.  As  the 
increasfi^j^op  of  Florida  fruit  has  found  an  increasing  market  at  the 
North  since  1865-'66,  Northern  people  have  more  and  more  found 
occupation  and  homes  in  Florida,  largely  neglecting  the  intermediate 
regions  that  furnish  no  such  products.  The  same  principle  will  apply 
on  the  larger  scale,  including  the  West  India  Islands,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  dominant  commercial  movements  on  north  and  south  lines 
substantially  at  right  angles  to  those  of  dominant  commercial  move- 
ment under  the  present  system. 

This  would  develop  a  commerce  based  on  soil  enrichment  and 
higher  civilization  everywhere  in  the  United  States,  as  against  a  sys- 
tem of  commercial  interchange  based  on  soil  exhaustion  and  conse- 
quent barbarization,  as  now,  under  what  I  may  call  the  English  sys- 
tem, although  it  has  become  the  system  of  the  world.  So  far  as  this 
country  is  concerned,  at  least,  that  system  insists  and  must  insist  on 
commercial  movements  on  east  and  west  lines,  whereby,  through  the 
continually  cheapening  cost  of  transportation,  our  agricultural  prod- 
ucts are  removed  forever  from  the  country  and  exchanged  for  Brum- 
magim  and  other  wares,  which,  however  they  may  be  disposed  of,  and 
whatever  may  be  their  value  otherwise,  certainly  can  not  do  much  in  the 
way  of  refertilizing  our  wheat  and  grain  fields  or  the  cotton  fields  of  the 
South.  Necessary  result,  the  destructive  competition  of  like  with  like. 

Our  fathers  started  out  to  establish  an  American  continental  sys- 
tem in  and  under  which  the  rights  of  all  men  should  be  respected. 
Their  children  have  been  in  the  main  content  to  undertake  and  con- 
tinue to  manage  a  continent  on  parochial  principles,  and  these  in- 
extricably and  intentionally  confused  by  constant  and  universal  Euro- 
pean interference.  This  sufficiently  explains  the  failures  of  the  past 
and  the  hopes  and  possibilities  of  the  future. 

There  are  two  ways  of  stating  my  position  : 

1.  There  is  no  race  question  except  as  we  make  one  through  our 
failure  to  recognize  and  apply  the  scientific  principles  of  an  advancing 
civilization  in  their  land  and  ethnological  relations  and  implications, 
working  harmoniously  to  the  desired  end. 

2.  The  solution  of  the  race  question  is  to  be  found  by  giving  to  each 
race  its  own  fit  habitat  and  the  opportunities  belonging  to  each,  in 
which  each  race  will  help  others  without  antagonisms,  either  political 
or  social,  each  furnishing  a  market  for  the  products  of  the  other. 

Under  a  system  of  this  kind,  so  rich  in  possibilities  is  the  black-belt 
region  that  it  could  support  a  population  as  large  as  the  present  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States,  of  which  only  a  small  and  unobtrusive 
fraction  would  be  black,  while  the  West  Indies  and  Central  America 


394  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

would  fill  up  with  a  black  race  partly  composed  of  emigrants  from  the 
United  States  constantly  growing  in  civilization  through  the  necessary 
effects  of  "opportunity"  furnished  by  a  near-by  market.  It  would 
matter  little  whether  the  two  races  worked  under  the  same  flag  or  not, 
so  long  as  they  worked  in  peace  and  prospered  through  the  results  of 
a  common  interest  in  a  commerce  scientifically  based  on  the  different 
natural  productions  of  different  soils,  climates,  and  regions.  Only  a 
continental  system  could  accomplish  such  results.  A  continental  sys- 
tem is  impossible  so  long  as  any  part  of  the  continent  or  of  the  adja- 
cent islands  is  occupied  and  held  under  European  dominion  and  gov- 
erned by  European  ideas,  North  or  South ;  and  here  we  reach  the  root 
of  the  whole  matter.  It  is  not  plain  piracy  and  plunder  now  as  for- 
merly, but  the  European  idea  is  that  America  must  be  held  in  a  com- 
mercial sense  tributary  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  European 
governments  in  governing  European  peoples  on  European  plans  and 
principles,  whatever  may  become  of  American  governments,  peoples, 
and  plans.  We  have  accepted  that  relation  not  only  as  to  commerce 
in  goods,  but  also  in  the  commerce  of  ideas,  which  they  supply  in  sup- 
port of  their  plans  and  principles  and  which  we  accept  and  adopt  al- 
though they  attack  and  overthrow  American  plans  and  principles. 
Not  so  was  it  with  the  fathers.  They  saw  the  need  if  not  the  oppor- 
tunity of  setting  up  an  independent  continental  system  and  elected  a 
Continental  Congress  to  begin  with.  When  their  descendants  have 
wisdom  enough  and  force  enough  to  complete  the  plans  of  the  fathers 
in  a  continental  system  with  which  Europe  is  not  allowed  to  injuri- 
ously interfere,  then  we  shall  find  solutions  not  only  for  race  problems, 
but  for  many  other  problems  that  are  now  not  much  less  vexing  and 
obscure.  When  that  day  comes  there  will  be  no  fine  questions  to  dis- 
cuss as  to  the  effects  of  the  mixing  of  races  and  race  contacts,  because 
there  will  be  a  common  and  universal  interest  in  keeping  the  races 
pure  and  unmixed  until  at  least  an  equal  culture,  wealth,  and  social 
status  shall  remove  the  natural  and  beneficent  race  prejudice — if  they 
ever  do.  Independent  race  improvement  for  each  in  its  own  natural 
habitat  may  then  proceed  in  an  orderly  and  peaceful  manner,  the  com- 
bative instincts  of  men  being  directed  to  the  subduing  or  at  least 
training  and  using  the  forces  of  Nature  as  the  true  policy  of  progress. 
Freedom  from  European  commercial  and  economic  interference  is 
the  most  important  factor  in  the  solution  of  this  as  of  many  other 
problems. 

If  Europe  and  European  methods  and  ideas  could  be  persuaded  or 
forced  to  let  go  their  deadly  grip  on  the  people  of  all  outlying  coun- 
tries of  the  world,  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  something  more 
than  a  destiny  of  destruction  might  be  found  for  the  so-called  lower 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  395 

races  of  other  types  without  intermixture  of  blood  or  absorption 
even. 

Necessarily,  in  the  presence  of  such  a  solution  the  political  and  as- 
sociated moral  difficulties  of  the  problem  would  largely  disappear. 

Here,  as  throughout,  the  key  to  the  situation  is  justice.  Justice  be- 
tween men,  and  justice — or  obedience  to  the  law  of  right — toward  land 
in  its  broadest  interpretation,  failing  which  the  land  has  its  own  slow 
but  sure  system  of  punishment  for  wrong-doers. 

But  injustice  to  land  and  to  the  negro  is  not  the  only  injustice  that 
has  had  to  do  with  the  creation  of  this  question.  There  is,  in  fact, 
another  question  of  race  or  part  of  a  race  still  more  obscure  than  the 
negro  race  question,  upon  which  the  solution  of  the  latter  absolutely 
depends.  In  spite  of  slavery  and  the  conditions  in  which  it  flourished, 
a  distinct  type  of  men  had  been  developed  there  which  naturally  affili- 
ated with  the  peoples  of  the  North  to  a  marked  degree  in  their  ideas 
and  aspirations  about  freedom,  union,  and  related  topics.  These  men 
doubted  the  beneficence  of  slavery  and  would  have  been  glad  to  join 
the  North  in  some  reasonable  plan  for  getting  rid  of  it.  Singularly 
enough,  no  discussions  note  or  explain  the  total  absence  of  this  one 
important  factor  in  the  solution.  In  nearly  all  the  seceding  States 
Union  men  were  in  the  majority  in  1860.  These  Union  men  were  not 
only  the  natural  allies  and  friends  of  the  Union  before  the  war,  but 
they  were  also  the  natural  leaders  of  reconstruction  and  the  natural 
friends,  teachers,  and  leaders  of  the  negro  in  his  induction  into  polit- 
ical opportunity  and  the  new  status.  They  seem  to  have  disappeared 
from  the  face  of  the  earth  as  effectually  as  the  ten  tribes  of  Israel,  all 
in  one  generation,  leaving  no  sign.  What  happened  to  them  and  what 
has  become  of  them  ?  Having  clearly  seen  the  opportunity  they  were 
possibly  to  have  after  the  war,  as  early  as  the  fall  of  1860,  having  been 
one  of  them  myself,  having  been  an  observant  witness  of  the  deep 
damnation  of  their  taking  off,  and  having  done  my  best  to  prevent  it 
at  the  time,  there  is  a  certain  duty  of  explanation  laid  upon  me. 

In  some  minds  before  the  election,  and  in  many  within  forty-eight 
hours  after  it,  the  great  and  urgent  questions  were  :  If  we  have  sepa- 
ration in  peace,  what  will  be  the  status  and  fate  of  Union  men  f  If 
secession  is  followed  by  war,  what?  Between  the  upper  and  nether 
mill-stones  of  the  contention,  how  are  we  and  our  rights  to  fare  ?  And 
when  it  is  all  over,  who  is  to  rule  in  these  Southern  States  and  who  is 
to  be  ruined,  the  Secessionist  or  the  Unionist,  especially  if  the  Union 
conquers?  Will  not  the  Government  ignore  us,  make  terms  with 
their  enemies  and  ours  after  the  war,  and  put  us  under  their  heels  for- 
ever ?  These  were  the  supreme  questions  to  the  Southern  Unionist. 

It  was  at  once  seen  by  myself  and  many  others  that  England,  repre- 
4 


396  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

senting  herself  and  foreign  interests  in  general,  would  probably  ex- 
ercise as  much  influence  in  settling  our  fate  and  that  of  the  negro  as 
either  the  Confederacy  or  the  United  States,  perhaps  more — and  more 
it  turned  out  to  be. 

International  law  and  the  laws  of  war  have  been  established  by  gov- 
ernments of  the  imperial  order  and  conform  to  their  interests  and 
principles ;  and  against  them  we  seem  to  have  no  courage  to  protest. 
In  that  system  whatever  the  king  does  every  one  of  his  subjects  con- 
structively does  and  may  be  held  responsible  for  accordingly  by  the 
king  of  the  nation  with  which  their  king  may  be  at  war.  But  American 
citizens  never  were  subjects  of  any  king.  They  were  and  are  sover- 
eigns, each  in  his  own  right.  How,  then,  could  any  man  or  combina- 
tion of  men,  minority  or  majority,  by  setting  up  a  State  or  Confederate 
government  in  rebellion  and  committing  treason  for  themselves,  also 
commit  treason  and  work  forfeiture  of  rights  of  any  kind — property, 
life,  franchise,  representation,  protection  of  every  kind — for  any  other 
citizen  and  sovereign,  and  especially  for  a  Union  citizen  who  opposed 
them  with  all  the  powers  the  Government  placed  in  his  hands,  and 
more  besides,  when  even  the  Government  itself  was  powerless  to  pre- 
vent rebellion  and  treason  by  any  means  at  its  command  I 

Starting  from  this  foundation  during  the  winter  of  1860-'61,  I  per- 
sonally originated  and  worked  out  a  plan  for  the  protection  of  the 
Southern  Unionist  and  to  enable  him  to  aid  the  United  States  in  put- 
ting down  rebellion,  preserving  the  State  autonomy  in  himself  and  his 
class,  taking  in  hand  the  management  of  the  States  in  reconstruction, 
and  generally  showing  the  South  how  to  enter  upon  the  new  civiliza- 
tion of  freedom,  peace,  and  Union  after  the  war.  It  included  a  plan 
to  enable  the  Government  to  separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats  when 
the  day  of  victory  and  judgment  should  come. 

My  plan  rested  upon  the  claim  that,  unless  forfeited  by  some  act  of 
the  individual,  the  right  of  representation  in  Congress  remained  to  the 
Union  man  of  the  South ;  that  no  rights  of  the  Unionist  could  be  for- 
feited by  residence  within  the  States  in  which  rebellious  citizens  had 
attempted  to  establish  a  new  State  government  or  a  new  general  gov- 
ernment, not  even  when  de  facto  successful  in  that  attempt ;  and  that 
the  property  of  Union  men  was  protected  by  the  Constitution  and 
could  not  be  confiscated  for  constructive  treason  even  when  running 
the  blockade  outward,  especially  if  done  in  obedience  to  a  proclama- 
tion of  the  President  calling  upon  Southern  citizens  to  withdraw  them- 
selves and  refrain  from  aiding  and  abetting  treason  and  rebellion. 
Two  months  or  more  were  spent  in  Washington  during  June,  July, 
and  August,  1861,  in  pressing  these  and  related  points  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  the  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  departments  of  the  Gov- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  397 

ernment.  Among  those  personally  approached  were  Mr.  Lincoln, 
Thad.  Stevens,  Judge  Wayne,  Senator  Ira  Harris,  of  New  York,  and 
Mr.  Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  the  latter  occupying  the  controlling  posi- 
tion of  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Elections  of  the  House.  The 
first  four  were  prompt  to  see  the  importance  of  the  suggestions  made, 
and  Mr.  Stevens,  then  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means, 
embodied  the  suggestion  to  put  a  tax  on  cotton,  intended  to  act  prac- 
tically like  an  export  duty,  which  was  subsequently  declared  uncon- 
stitutional after  some  seventy-five  millions  had  been  collected,  which 
still  remain  in  the  United  States  Treasury.  Mr.  Dawes  (looking  at  the 
matter  with  the  eyes  of  parochial  statesmanship)  saw  a  deep-laid  plot 
of  treason  in  giving  Southern  Unionists  their  right  of  representation 
even  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  South  divided  into  two  parties, 
one  for  and  the  other  against  the  Government,  and  used  his  influence 
on  the  floor  of  the  House  and  elsewhere  to  prevent  it. 

Others  besides  myself  were  urging  the  same  policy  for  similar  rea- 
sons ;  but  Union  representation  from  seceded  States  was  denied  and 
the  Union  elements  were  abandoned  to  their  fate,  many  of  them  to  be 
forced  to  co-operate  with  the  secession  elements,  however  unwillingly, 
thereby  practically  uniting  the  South  in  the  compact  body  which  re- 
sisted so  long  and  cost  so  much  to  conquer. 

The  fatal  influence  that  produced  this  result  was  that  of  the  Eng- 
lish Government,  with  its  watchful  eyes  on  the  blockade  and  South- 
ern trade  and  its  policy  of  embarrassment  in  order  to  make  the  re- 
bellion successful.  It  became  evident  that  if  Southern  Unionists  were 
represented  in  Congress,  British  ships  would  insist  on*  entering  South- 
ern ports  in  order  to  trade  with  the  Southern  people,  on  the  theory 
that  under  a  de  facto  government  all  or  none  were  in  rebellion.  That 
is  to  say,  the  commercial  system  which  resulted  in  slavery  and  re- 
bellion through  soil  exhaustion  had  established  relations  that  made  or 
seemed  to  make  it  the  interest  of  England  to  destroy  the  Union  and 
the  Union  people  of  the  South.  The  same  relations  still  continue  and 
furnish  one  of  the  great  obstacles  to  the  solution  of  our  race  and  other 
problems. 

The  consequence  was  that,  in  spite  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
justice  and  without  voluntary  acts  of  treason  on  which  to  justify  the 
treatment,  the  United  States  in  all  its  departments — executive,  judi- 
cial, and  legislative — treated  its  friends,  the  Union  men  in  the  South, 
as  just  as  guilty  as  its  enemies,  emancipating  their  slaves  without 
compensation,  confiscating  their  property  as  that  of  public  enemies, 
taking  away  their  right  of  representation,  and  finally,  without  making 
the  slightest  distinction  between  friends  and  foes,  tendering  to  those 
who  had  never  committed  treason  an  amnesty  oath,  in  which  without 


398  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

charge,  trial,  jury,  or  benefit  of  clergy  even,  they  were  made  to  confess 
treason  and  surrender  all  political  rights  and  all  property  rights  over 
twenty  thousand  dollars  in  value,  as  the  sole  condition  and  only  means 
whereby  they  could  take  their  letters  from  the  post-office,  do  any  busi- 
ness whatever,  or  continue  to  live  in  the  South ;  and  this  amnesty  oath 
was  to  be  and  was  filed  in  the  State  Department  at  Washington,  there 
to  be  held  as  proof  in  all  coming  time  of  crime  against  the  Government, 
whether  any  such  crime  had  ever  been  committed  by  the  individual 
signing  it  or  not.  Even  discharged  soldiers  and  officers  of  the  Union 
army  who  helped  to  put  down  the  rebellion  and  had  the  proof  of 
wounds  on  their  bodies  and  of  their  discharges  in  their  pockets  were 
compelled  to  take  the  same  oath.  Indeed,  it  is  quite  possible,  I  believe 
certain,  that  the  Government  is  now  paying  pensions  to  men  whose 
amnesty  oaths  confessing  treason  are  at  this  moment  on  file  in  the 
State  Department.  Such  are  the  travesties  of  governmental  adminis- 
tration and  justice. 

This  was  the  treatment,  in  outline,  that  destroyed  Unionism  in  the 
South  and  deprived  the  emancipated  slave  of  his  natural  and  native 
friend,  and  also  the  Government  itself. 

I  was  one  of  ten  persons  summoned,  by  suggestion  from  Washington, 
to  meet  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  the  Republican  party  in  the  State 
of  Georgia  under  the  provisional  Governor  appointed  by  President 
Johnson — with  a  view  to  the  election  of  the  first  State  officers  and  a 
legislature.  We  had  one  meeting  and  adjourned  sine  die.  There  was 
no  other  course  to  pursue.  No  Republican  party  was  then  organized. 
The  secession  element,  after  slight  surprise  and  hesitation  and  finally 
amusement  over  the  preposterous  folly  of  the  Government  policy,  took 
the  amnesty  oath,  elected  their  sort  to  office,  and  started  in  at  once  to 
nullify  the  results  of  the  war.  Why  not  ? 

At  this  point  Congress  stepped  in,  gave  the  negro  political  rights,, 
the  secession  elements  retired,  the  Union  elements  existed  no  longer 
— had  been  destroyed  by  the  Government's  own  acts — and  the  only 
element  left  was  the  famous  carpet-bag  contingent,  the  fit  survival  of 
the  fittest  out  of  all  this  combined  burlesque  and  travesty  of  states- 
manship. 

Under  such  auspices  as  these  did  the  solution  of  the  race  and  other 
Southern  problems  commence.  Should  we  wonder  at  the  results  we 
have  seen  and  now  see?  The  United  States  Government,  that  for 
which  the  North  was  and  is  responsible,  destroyed  first  the  Union,  and 
then  the  Disunion  party  of  the  South,  leaving  the  field  to  transients. 
The  carpet-bagger,  who  practically  did  all  the  work  of  restoration,  has 
been  blamed  for  all  the  blunders  and  crimes  of  the  period,  and  his  fate 
at  the  hands  of  the  historians  we  may  anticipate.  But  in  fact  he  is 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  399 

only  a  convenient  and  somewhat  amusing  scarecrow  in  the  Southern 
corn-field,  rigged  out  in  the  tattered  and  torn  mistakes  and  misfits  of 
both  sides  to  the  original  controversy.  Neither  side  knowing  what  to 
do  with  the  negro,  then  as  now,  and  not  offering  to  do  anything,  pretty 
much  all  the  fault  has  been  heaped  upon  him  for  doing  something,  all 
that  was  done,  the  best  he  knew  of  what  to  do.  His  answer  to  all  the 
charges  is  most  complete  and  sufficient.  Like  other  scarecrows,  of 
other  corn-fields,  he  has  been  found  capable  of  enduring  all  the  storms 
and  peltings  that  have  fallen  upon  him,  in  silence,  without  giving  any 
sign  of  any  attempt  at  self-defense.  This  tactics  on  his  part  is  sure  to 
tire  out  his  enemies  eventually ;  and  then  will  come  their  season  for 
self -investigation,  and  the  investigation  of  the  race  problem  on  its  own 
separate  and  independent  merits.  Not  forever  will  the  real  culprits, 
North  and  South,  be  able  to  unload  their  own  faults  and  crimes  upon 
the  back  of  the  wretched  carpet-bagger.* 

The  significant  fact  remains  as  a  perpetual  lesson,  that  whereas  be- 
fore the  war  the  whites  were  divided  into  two  political  parties,  one  of 
them  favoring  the  Union  and  frequently  in  the  majority,  there  is  now, 
as  the  result  of  the  insane  injustice  of  the  Government  itself,  practi- 
cally but  one  party,  which  no  "  force  bill "  and  no  standing  army  can 
ever  divide,  because  neither  of  them  can  touch  the  cause  of  that  unity, 
but  must  instead  substitute  aggravation  for  remedy.  A  necessary  pre- 
liminary to  the  solution  of  the  negro  race  question  in  the  South  is  the 
resurrection  of  the  Union  type  of  men  in  something  like  the  old  pro- 
portions by  the  sustained  development  of  an  economic  policy  that  will 
permit  su*ch  men  to  live  and  prosper  there.  That  policy  is  the  neces- 
sary policy  of  a  higher  civilization  which  has  in  it  the  energy  to  meet 
and  overcome  the  policy  of  barbarization  in  the  struggle  for  survival. 

There  is  but  one  remedy — the  establishment  of  the  conditions  of 
freedom  and  race  co-operative  unity.  To  establish  these  the  United 
States  must  take  the  control  of  the  interests  of  its  own  people  at  the 

*  But  the  carpet-bagger  robbed  the  South,  they  say.  Well,  I  am  afraid  he  did. 
Doubtless  when  he  saw  shipwreck  ahead  he  grabbed  what  he  could  lay  hands  on 
and  got  ashore,  or  North,  the  best  way  he  could.  But  I  venture  to  say,  in  all 
seriousness,  and  out  of  abundant  opportunity  of  knowledge,  that  for  every  dollar 
he  stole  from  the  South,  the  South  stole  ten  from  him  at  least.  Prof.  Le  Conte 
mentions  the  quick  recuperation  of  the  South  after  the  war,  notwithstanding  the 
<lis<  organization  of  labor.  Largely  the  money  of  the  carpet-bagger  did  it.  Money 
was  thm  abundant.  Crowds  of  men  went  South  to  invest  it  and  help  rebuild  on 
the  new  foundations.  The  chances  are  that  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
dollars  of  that  money  was  permanently  invested  there,  and  that  the  remaining 


car  pet -bagged  out  of  the  South  before  the  negro  regime  began,  impelled  l>y  un- 
speakable sorrow  and  disgust  over  the  impending  fiasco.  But  I  know  the  history 
of  hundreds  of  others,  and  I  know  of  none  who  brought  away  more  than  a  small 
fraction  of  what  they  took  there.  I  further  Ijnow  of  very  many  who  never  got 
away  with  their  lives  even,  much  less  with  their  money. 


400  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

bottom  by  breaking  the  hold  of  English  commercial  policy  upon  those 
interests,  through  some  system  of  protection  for  the  South  against  soil 
exhaustion  and  the  removal  of  the  "  opportunities  "  of  freedom,  and 
this  on  some  comprehensive  continental  plan,  either  of  war  or  peace, 
or  both,  that  shall  eliminate  English  political,  military,  and  commercial 
dominion  from  this  continent  and  from  all  the  adjacent  islands. 

It  has  been  said  by  economists  that  if  all  the  personal  property  of 
a  civilized  community  should  be  destroyed,  about  three  years'  labor 
would  furnish  the  means  of  restoration.  The  destruction  of  property 
in  slaves  by  emancipation  was  not  as  disastrous  as  expected,  in  part 
because  labor  thereby  became  free  to  move,  and  did  in  part  move,  to 
more  productive  lands,  thereby  speeding  recuperation,  only  to  repeat 
the  same  old  round  of  land  destruction,  however.  But,  under  a  system 
permitting  soil  enrichment  from  year  to  year,  the  capital  in  buildings, 
fences,  and  other  improvements  would  be  saved,  and  also  that  required 
to  pay  for  new  improvements  on  new  lands,  while  the  accompanying 
improved  agriculture  would  require  and  develop  superior  intelligence 
and  growing  morality  in  the  labor  employed.  This  is  the  true  line  of 
march  out  of  slavery  into  freedom,  as  also  into  freedom  from  race  an- 
tagonisms. 

Precisely  here  are  to  be  found  the  origin  and  remedy  of  the  unex- 
pected race  problems  with  which  the  North  is  beginning  to  be  afflicted. 
A  policy  of  soil  exhaustion  under  the  control  of  unchecked  transporta- 
tion interests  and  action  on  behalf  of  the  owners  and  manipulators  of 
railroads  must  create  a  demand  for  and  assist  the  supply  of  an  ever- 
deteriorating  class  of  laborers,  constantly  lowering  the  standard  of 
American  citizenship  everywhere.  An  opposite  policy  would  have  an 
opposite  effect  upon  that  standard,  and  would  have  a  further  effect  to 
check  the  current  tendency  to  railroad  wrecking,  trusteeships,  reorgani- 
zation, and  general  decline  in  value.  It  would  also  check  the  spirit  of 
railroad  conflict,  competition,  and  homicide.  Belief  of  race  problems 
by  education  and  improved  morality  depends  upon  increased  return 
for  labor,  better  wages.  Cause  and  effect  are  found  on  both  sides  of 
the  equation,  but  still  the  destruction  of  the  poor  is  everywhere  their 
poverty.  The  wages  of  workers  are  to  society  what  food  is  to  the 
body — they  enrich,  strengthen,  and  make  healthy  the  life-blood  of  the 
social  organism. 

In  these  propositions  will  be  found  the  answer  to  the  question  of 
Prof.  Le  Conte :  "  What  is  the  best  next  step  f  "  And  all  the  answers 
may  be  summed  up  in  a  universal  policy  of  land  protection — protec- 
tion against  land  destruction  by  the  insidious  effects  of  both  foreign 
and  domestic  policies  that  rob  the  American  worker  of  the  material 
things  on  and  by  which  alone  his  work  can  be  employed,  expended, 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  401 

and  made  fruitful.  To  accomplish  this  the  continent  must  be  sur- 
veyed, and  out  of  its  diversities  a  consistent  continental  policy  of  unity 
and  harmony  framed,  adopted,  put  in  practice,  guarded  against  foreign 
and  domestic  interference ;  these  steps  to  be  repeated  as  often  as  en- 
lightened progress  may  demand  and  permit. 

The  history  of  the  rebellion,  its  antecedents  and  sequences,  is  so  full 
of  studies  and  instruction  for  the  evolutionary  sociologist,  and  this 
opportunity  is  so  unique  and  little  likely  to  be  repeated,  that  one  who 
was  a  witness  with  eyes  wide  open  is  loath  to  drop  the  subject.  Let 
me  refer  briefly  to  one  or  two  more  points. 

I  have  said  elsewhere,  substantially:  Secession  never  won  in  the 
South  until  it  appeared  at  last  that  the  new  autonomy  would  furnish 
opportunity  to  the  young  men  of  the  South  in  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  Confederacy.  The  new  autonomy  was  the  result  of  what  natural- 
ists know  as  propagation  by  fission,  which  takes  place  when  the  organ- 
ism can  no  longer  supply  itself  with  the  necessary  amount  of  food.  It 
might  be  called  propagation  by  starvation  or  by  poverty,  and  its  appli- 
cation here  would  be  more  apparent  by  the  use  of  either  of  these  terms. 

Now,  portions  of  the  Northern  States  are  at  this  moment  uncon- 
sciously getting  ready  for  splitting  up,  propagating  by  fission,  for  the 
same  reasons.  New  England,  having  exhausted  its  soil  and  other  natu- 
ral resources,  is  beginning  to  demand  free  trade,  in  order  to  obtain 
cheap  Nova  Scotia  coal  and  hold  her  manufacturing  enterprises. 
Meantime  Quebec  has  largely  annexed  New  England  by  sending  over 
four  hundred  thousand  French  Canadians  there,  who  propose  to  ap- 
propriate and  control  the  whole  of  it  through  the  effects  of  another 
form  of  propagation — the  natural  one — raised  to  the  highest  power 
under  skillful  priestly  direction.  Here  we  have  the  almost  complete 
conditions  for  the  formation  of  a  new  confederacy  or  dominion,  in- 
cluding Quebec,  New  England,  and  that  portion  of  the  Dominion  lying 
east  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Meanwhile  our  Protestant  priesthood  are 
squabbling  over  creeds  and  higher  criticism,  sacrificing  birthright  for 
pottage  again. 

Further,  the  combination  of  Union  States  was  always  wasp-waisted 
at  or  about  the  region  of  Ohio.  But  for  the  strong  breed  of  New  Eng- 
landers  who  first  settled  the  northern  part  of  that  State,  and  the  ne- 
cessities of  east  and  west  commercial  movement,  a  point  for  another 
fission  might  have  been  found  there  long  since.  When  this  east  and 
west  movement  begins  to  decline,  as  it  must  before  long,  if  it  has  not 
done  so  already,  another  danger  spot,  with  or  without  a  danger  signal^ 
will  be  found  in  Ohio.  Further  study  would  show  other  danger  spots, 
if  opportunity  permitted. 

What  our  fathers  called  Providence,  and  we  may  call  evolution- 


402  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ary  protection,  or  provision  by  compulsion — the  necessity  of  raising 
revenue  by  taxing  the  foreigner  through  an  export  duty — put  into  the 
Confederate  constitution  the  means  for  destroying  slavery  by  slow 
evolutionary  action,  and  for  building  up  a  strong  and  prosperous  peo- 
ple. This  means  the  success  of  Union  arms  destroyed.  It  is  for  us  to 
take  a  lesson  out  of  the  same  book.  When  we  have  done  so,  and  en- 
larged the  teaching  to  cover  a  continental  system,  we  may  flatter  our- 
selves that  we  have  begun  to  solve  our  race  problems,  and  many  other 
equally  important  problems ;  and  not  till  then. 

DR.  LEWIS  G.  JANES  : 

I  wish  to  correct  what  I  think  might  be  a  false  impression  from 
the  criticism  of  Mr.  Skilton  on  the  action  of  the  abolitionists  in  dis- 
banding their  organization  after  the  war.  As  I  was  brought  up  after 
the  strictest  sect  of  the  abolitionists,  and  read  the  discussions  in  their 
papers  when  this  action  was  taken,  I  think  I  can  speak  with  authority 
concerning  their  motives.  They  did  not  consider  that  their  work  was 
done — that  they  had  no  further  obligation  to  help  the  colored  people, 
as  Mr.  Skilton  assumes.  But  they  found  themselves  then  in  substan- 
tial agreement  with  a  large  section — more  than  half — of  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  It  seemed  to  them  that  they  could  exercise  a  wider 
influence,  and  do  better  and  more  effective  work  for  the  colored  man, 
by  breaking  down  the  barrier  of  their  exclusive  organization  and 
joining  hands  with  all  those  who  were  working  for  the  same  ends. 
Whether  they  were  right  or  not  I  will  not  argue ;  but  I  believe  the 
truth  of  history  will  recognize  the  purity  of  their  motives,  and  their 
life-long  devotion,  as  individuals  and  citizens,  to  the  welfare  of  the 
colored  race.  I  know  personally  that  many  of  them  had  a  wiser  fore- 
sight of  the  difficulties  succeeding  emancipation  than  most  of  their 
Northern  fellow-citizens.  Many  of  them  have  since  devoted  years  of 
faithful  service  to  the  education  and  improvement  of  the  freedmen. 
Without  arguing  the  question,  I  must  also  dissent  from  his  policy  of 
expatriating  the  colored  people,  which  it  clearly  seems  to  me  would 
result,  not  in  their  civilization,  but  in  their  relapse  into  utter  bar- 
barism, as  in  San  Domingo. 

PROF.  LE  CONTE,  in  closing :  At  this  late  hour  I  will  not  detain 
the  audience  by  further  remarks.  I  desire  merely  to  extend  my  thanks 
to  the  audience  for  their  courteous  attention,  and  especially  to  express 
my  great  interest  and  general  agreement  with  the  remarks  of  Mr, 
Skilton.  It  appears  to  me,  speaking  off-hand  and  under  the  impulse  of 
my  present  feeling,  that  he  has  indicated  very  nearly  the  true  solution 
of  this  problem. 


-  <V«-*JS      Ofc^t- 


oC^-«-^— ^—"^ 


«-  *  •••"* 


EDUCATION  AS  RELATED 
TO  CITIZENSHIP 


BY 

REV.  JOHN  W.  CHADWICK 

AUTHOR  OP  THE  BIBLE  OF  TO-DAY,  CHARLES  DARWIN,   EVOLUTION 
RELATED  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Spencer's  Education,  Justice,  and  Introduction  to  A  Plea  for 
Liberty;  Alford's  Free  Education,  in  A  Plea  for  Liberty;  Craik's 
The  State  and  Education;  Fiske's  Civil  Government  in  the  United 
States ;  Howry's  Studies  in  Civil  Government ;  Dr.  Mott's  Intel- 
lectual Evolution  in  its  Relation  to  Physiological  Dissolution ;  Bryant's 
Educational  Ends ;  Peaslee's  Moral  and  Literary  Training  in  Public 
Schools;  Leland's  Practical  Education;  Beesan's  The  Spirit  of  Edu- 
cation ;  Henderson's  Thomas  Jefferson's  Views  on  Public  Education ; 
Horace  Mann's  Lectures  on  Education  ;  Jacob  Abbott's  The  Teacher ; 
Trenholm's  Moral  Principle  in  Public  Affairs,  in  The  Forum,  vol.  v, 
p.  545 ;  Bishop  Potter's  The  Scholar  in  Politics,  in  The  Forum,  vol. 
vii  (1889),  p.  467 ;  Dwight's  Education  in  Boyhood,  in  The  Forum,  vol. 
ix,  p.  133. 


EDUCATION  AS   RELATED   TO 
CITIZENSHIP. 

BY  REV.  JOHN  W.  CHAD  WICK. 

CITIZENSHIP  is  that  part  of  civilization  which  concerns 
men  and  women  in  their  relation  to  the  state.  The  relation 
of  education  to  citizenship  is  foreshadowed  by  the  general 
course  of  history  even  in  those  primitive  forms  which  have 
in  them  very  little  of  those  honors  and  responsibilities  which 
the  term  citizenship  suggests  to  the  modern  mind.  There 
must  be  nations  before  there  can  be  citizens,  and  nations 
are  "  like  bodies  of  men,  because  of  their  likeness  capable  of 
acting  together  and  obeying  similar  rules."  The  process 
by  which  these  bodies  are  formed  is  not  less  educational  be- 
cause it  has  not  the  incidents  of  the  school-house,  the  text- 
book, the  formal  teacher,  and  so  on.  It  is  the  most  in- 
teresting paradox  of  political  history  that  what  was  most 
necessary  to  be  done  in  the  first  stage  of  that  history  was 
most  necessary  to  be  undone  in  the  secpnd.  In  the  first  a 
rule,  a  law,  a  custom — Mr.  Bagehot's  "  cake  of  custom  " — 
must  be  formed,  and  formed  so  hard  that  it  can  not  easily 
be  broken ;  in  the  second  it  must  somehow  be  broken  or 
there  is  no  further  progress  possible.  The  first  necessity  is 
as  imperative  as  the  embryonic  chicken's  shell,  the  second 
hardly  less  important  than  the  breaking  of  that  shell ;  for 
that  people's  life  in  which  it  remains  unbroken  is,  at  best,  a 
living  death.  As  for  the  principal  ingredient  of  the  original 
"cake  of  custom,"  I  doubt  not  Bagehot  was  right  in  his 
opinion  that  it  was  of  a  piece  with  that  same  imitativeness 
which  makes  all  the  writers  for  a  great  journal  write  like  its 
strongest  man.  As  to  the  breaking  of  the  "  cake  "  which 
was  essential  to  the  second  stage  of  civilization,  we  shall  all 
agree  that  wars  between  nation  and  nation  had  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  it.  The  doctrine  that  "every  man  is  a  rascal 
who  speaks  two  languages  "  thus  got  a  sharp  rebuff.  The 
number  of  rascals  of  this  sort  was  greatty  multiplied.  Con- 
quering races  imposed  their  religious  and  political  ideas  on 
the  conquered  races  or  they  went  to  school  to  these :  this 
of tener  than  the  other,  when  it  was  brute  strength  that  con- 
quered. But  generally  it  was  not'  so,  and  here  we  have  a 

(405) 


406  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

proof  that  even  in  those  times  when  war  seemed  to  decide 
everything,  war  was  itself  a  rude  measure  of  degrees  of  in- 
tellectual and  moral  education.  It  was  the  intellectual  and 
moral  races  that  had  most  success  in  war.  Then,  too,  war 
facilitated  that  exchange  of  ideas  which  is  carried  on  by 
international  literature  and  travel  in  the  modern  world. 
Douglas  Jerrold — or  was  it  Heine? — explained  the  insipidity 
of  his  talk  on  one  occasion  by  saying  that  he  had  just  been 
exchanging  ideas  with  So-and-so,  a  person  remarkable  for 
his  stupidity ;  but  the  "  exchange  of  ideas  at  the  cannon's 
mouth  "  or  at  the  point  of  spears  has  often  been  a  mutual 
advantage. 

But  war  was  not  the  only  nor  the  most  invincible  icono- 
clast that  broke  the  images  of  ancient  custom  into  fragments 
and  beat  them  into  dust.  There  was  another  which,  com- 
pared with  war,  took  down  those  images  so  tenderly  from 
their  shrines  as  almost  to  do  them  reverence.  (I  trust  you 
recognize  the  variant  phrase).  It  was  the  era  of  discussion, 
the  necessity  of  a  free  state,  first  necessary  for  its  origin  and 
then  for  its  perpetuation.  To  think  upon  these  lines  and 
not  in  Bagehot's  tracks  is  quite  impossible.  "  Once  effectu- 
ally submit  a  subject,"  he  says,  "  to  the  ordeal  of  discussion, 
and  you  can  never  withdraw  it  again  ;  you  can  never  clothe 
it  again  with  mystery  or  fence  it  by  consecration;  it  re- 
mains forever  open  to  free  choice  and  exposed  to  profane 
deliberation."  And  "the  only  subjects  which  till  a  very 
late  age  of  civilization  can  be  submitted  to  discussion  in  the 
community  are  the  questions  involving  the  visible  and  press- 
ing interests  of  the  community  ;  they  are  political  questions 
of  high  and  urgent  import." 

We  have  a  capital  illustration  of  this  in  Athens  at  the 
height  of  her  renown.  Read  Aristotle's  newly  discovered 
Constitution  of  Athens  and  see  how  modern  it  is.  It  might 
have  been  written  yesterday  by  one  of  our  gravest  states- 
men ;  it  could  not  be  written  to-day  by  some  of  their  suc- 
cessors, men  without  culture,  without  ideas,  without  con- 
victions, without  anything  but  gold — or  brass.  But  this 
treatise  was  written  for  a  community  in  which  just  before 
its  noble  Socrates,  its  wisest  man,  had  condemned  the  study 
of  physics  as  impibus  and  absurd.  Political  discussion  is 
the  necessity  of  a  free  state.  That  is  its  father's  name  and 
that  the  name  which  all  its  children  bear,  like  Mary's  lodged 
somewhere  in  every  Spanish  girl's.  But  political  discussion 
to  be  intelligent  and  fruitful  means  at  least  an  educated 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  407 

class  which  either  steadily  augments  itself  or  in  "  times  that 
try  men's  souls  "  is  rapidly  enlarged.  Nothing  is  more  edu- 
cational than  a  great  public  question  everywhere  discussed. 
At  the  high  tide  of  the  antislavery  conflict  I  was  a  shoe- 
maker in  a  little  shop  with  eight  or  ten  others.  There  was 
no  aspect  of  that  conflict  which  escaped  our  interest.  Some- 
times one  read,  the  others  making  good  his  loss  of  time,  his 
voice  raised  high  to  drown  the  hammering.  I  have  since 
mingled  with  no  casual  group  of  men  having  a  political  con- 
sciousness more  intense  than  theirs,  or  better  qualified  to  dis- 
cuss the  leading  topics  of  the  hour. 

Given  as  your  form  of  government  an  autocracy,  a  des- 
potism— no  matter  how  paternal — an  absolute  monarchy, 
and  the  relation  of  education  to  citizenship  is  not  a  practi- 
cal question.  Under  such  a  government,  properly  speaking, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  citizenship.  To  be  the  inhabitant 
of  a  country,  the  subject  of  a  governing  person  or  class,  the 
payer  of  taxes  levied  without  his  consent,  does  not  make  a 
man  a  citizen.  To  be  a  citizen  he  must  have  a  share  in  the 
government ;  and  the  hostility  of  all  narrow  forms  of  gov- 
ernment to  education  was  a  well-founded  intuition.  It  ex- 
pressed itself  in  the  adage,  "  If  a  horse  knew  as  much  as  a 
man,  I  would  not  be  his  rider  "  ;  and  he  would  be  quite  as 
unsafe  for  several  to  ride  as  one,  which  means  that  an  oli- 
garchy or  an  aristocracy  has  as  little  interest  in  the  general 
education  of  the  community  as  an  autocracy,  a  monarchy. 
It  has  an  interest  to  maximize  its  deficiencies  and  minimize 
its  range. 

But  it  stands  to  reason  that,  given  a  republican  and  demo- 
cratic form  of  government,  "  Government  of  the  people,  for 
the  people,  by  the  people,"  as  Theodore  Parker  defined  it — 
so  admirably  that  Abraham  Lincoln  could  not  improve  the 
definition — and  the  more  general  intelligence  you  have  the 
better ;  and  general  intelligence  without  general  education 
will  probably  be  discovered  on  the  same  day  with  perpetual 
motion  and  the  philosopher's  stone.  Under  any  of  the  nar- 
rower forms  of  government  you  can  have  plenty  of  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  and  the  less  education  of  them  the  bet- 
ter— for  the  government.  Government  for  the  people  also 
you  may  have  in  abundance  if  the  government  is  sufficiently 
paternal.  The  benevolent  despot  will  make  sure  of  that, 
for  panem  et  circences  the  dear  people  shall  not  lack ;  but 
of  education  as  citizens  which  they  are  not  they  will  have 
no  need.  Nor  does  a  republican  form  of  government  as 
27 


408  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

such  require  the  general  education  of  the  people.  It  re- 
quires an  education  as  wide  as  the  basis  of  representation, 
which  may  be  very  narrow  and  the  government  still  be  as 
republican  as  ours ;  but  given  a  republican  and  democratic 
form  of  government,  government  of  the  people,  for  the  peo- 
ple, by  the  people — self-government — and  the  education  of 
the  entire  body  politic  is  an  imperative  necessity,  for  that  is 
no  true  government  by  the  people  in  which  they  cast  their 
votes  in  flocks  and  herds  at  the  dictation  of  a  party  dema- 
gogue or  local  boss.  That  is  government  by  demagogue  and 
boss.  It  is  a  sheer  waste  of  railroad  passes  and  good  liquor 
to  have  such  a  nominating  convention  as  we  had  in  Albany 
a  few  weeks  ago.  The  statesman  whom  a  cruel  wag  has 
called  "  Young  Chicory  "  might  just  as  well  have  nominated 
himself  unanimously  and  presented  himself  with  an  address 
expressive  of  his  many  great  and  valuable  services  to  him- 
self, and  have  responded  briefly  "  I  am  a  Democrat,"  as  to 
have  gone  through  all  the  forms  of  a  representative  assembly 
which  represented  nothing  but  a  foregone  conclusion. 

Government  ly  the  people  is  impossible  without  popular 
intelligence,  and  popular  intelligence  is  impossible  without 
popular  education.  I  know  how  much  there  is  in  the  prac- 
tical working  of  our  institutions  that  does  not  seem  to  har- 
monize with  these  self-evident  propositions.  I  know  that 
practically  the  political  appeal  is  often  to  men's  prejudice 
and  ignorance ;  not  to  their  intelligence  and  their  knowl- 
edge. I  know  that  while  theoretically  votes  are  necessary 
for  success,  practically  there  is  an  infinite  contempt  for 
them  in  the  conduct  of  many  party  organs  and  the  making 
of  many  party  speeches.  Better  than  votes,  better  than 
party  victory,  is  the  sweet  and  solemn  satisfaction  of  paying 
off  old  scores,  of  insulting  those  who  wisely  or  mistakenly 
have  followed  the  dictates  of  their  own  reason  and  con- 
science, of  digesting  the  venom  of  the  writers'  spleen  though 
it  do  split  them  and  their  party  too.  But  the  understand- 
ing implicit  in  every  great  political  contest  is  that  every  citi- 
zen is  an  independent  voter,  to  be  addressed  as  such,  while 
explicitly  the  independent  voter  is  anathema  maranatJia^ 
which  is,  "  double  damned."  The  logic  of  the  whole  treat- 
ment of  independency  by  the  party  organs  and  the  partisan 
bigot  is  that  all  the  organization  and  the  output  of  a  great 
political  campaign,  all  the  liberal  contributions  of  disinter- 
ested friends  to  the  campaign  fund,  and  all  the  arguments 
and  eloquence  of  great  assemblies,  are  to  maintain  the  status 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  409 

quo,  to  prevent  any  Republican  or  Democrat  from  going 
over  from  one  side  to  the  other.  But  such  logic  is  abso- 
lutely at  variance  with  the  actual  intention  of  these  things, 
which  is  to  get  as  many  citizens  as  possible  to  break  from 
their  habitual  allegiance  and  take  the  other  side.  And  who 
shall  say  that  this  intention  is  an  intention  to  corrupt  the 
individual  citizen,  to  make  him  an  object  of  contempt,  a  by- 
word and  a  hissing  in  the  land  ?  No ;  it  is  an  intention 
which  does  him  honor,  which  implies  that  independency  is 
the  normal  condition  and  the  indefeasible  right  of  every 
citizen  of  a  free  government,  and  that  John  Adams  builded 
better  than  he  knew  when,  dying  on  the  same  day  with 
Thomas  Jefferson,  he  faintly  cried  with  his  last  breath :  "  In- 
dependence forever." 

There  is  no  way  in  which  the  survival  of  the  savage  in 
the  modern  man  can  more  manifestly  attest  itself  than  by 
the  imitation  of  a  party  leader  without  the  exercise  of  de- 
liberate intelligence.  Some  traveler  tells  us  of  a  company 
of  savages  trailing  along  after  their  chief,  when  suddenly  he 
fell  into  a  hole,  and  what  did  the  others  but  go  and  do  like- 
wise— every  mother's  son  of  them — just  because  he  had  done 
it !  You  say,  "  What  fools ! "  But  there  are  just  as  foolish 
in  our  modern  politics,  and  the  holes  into  which  the  party 
braves  follow  their  leaders  sometimes  communicate  by  swift 
descent  with  sewage  of  no  special  and  superior  kind. 

Universal  suffrage  without  universal  independency  and 
universal  education  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  The  political 
canvass  is  an  appeal  to  individual  and  general  intelligence,  or 
it  is  a  pretense  and  a  fraud.  For  the  shortcomings  of  uni- 
versal suffrage  which  we  are  sometimes  conscious  of  we 
endeavor  to  console  ourselves  with  the  reflection  that  the 
ballot  is  educational  per  se.  It  is  to  some  extent ;  in  some 
campaigns  considerably;  in  others  not  at  all.  There  are 
those  who  would  abate  the  evil  by  limitations  of  the  suffrage. 
That  is  the  coward's  way.  And  it  is  absolutely  impracti- 
cable. "Even  the  gods  can  not  resume  their  gifts."  Uni- 
versal suffrage  has  come  to  stay  as  much  as  the  Copernican 
astronomy,  and  we  may  as  well  adjust  ourselves  to  the  one 
thing  as  to  the  other.  "  We  must  educate  our  masters," 
said  the  British  Tories  when  they  stole  the  Liberals'  thunder 
and  made  a  great  extension  of  the  suffrage  in  1867.  That 
saying  has  no  place  on  this  side  of  the  water.  We  have 
no  masters  here.  If  we  say  "  We  must  educate  our  mas- 
ters," it  means  that  we  must  educate  ourselves.  We  must. 


410  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

Kepublican  Democracy  means  self-mastery  and  it  means 
education  universally  diffused,  or  rascal  politics  and  the  ruin 
of  the  commonwealth.  To  trust  to  the  educational  quality 
of  the  ballot  is  blind  or,  what  is  worse,  deliberate  fatuity. 
That  quality  can  not  inhere  in  a  general  poverty  of  mind. 
Let  the  voter  be  at  the  outset  educated  and  intelligent  and 
he  may  appreciate  the  issues  of  a  great  campaign,  and  it 
may  carry  him  to  heights  that  have  a  more  extended  view. 
If  he  is  grossly  ignorant  he  will  catch  up  the  war  cries  of 
the  hour  and  shout  them  with  no  more  appreciation  of  their 
meaning  than  the  dull  fish  of  the  Atlantic  have  of  the  tele- 
graphic messages  which  thrill  its  sunless  deeps. 

The  popular  vote  means  popular  education.  And  how  is 
this  to  be  obtained  ?  To  ask  this  question  here  in  America 
is  an  opening  of  the  morgue,  as  the  ungodly  say,  hardly  less 
wasteful  of  our  energy  than  to  reopen  the  question  of  uni- 
versal suffrage.  There  cornea  along  occasionally  a  doubter 
of  the  Newtonian  gravitation ;  but  it  is  hard  for  him  to  get 
a  respectful  hearing  for  his  doubts.  It  would  be  almost  as 
difficult  for  the  doubter  of  the  public-school  system  to  get  a 
hearing  for  his  doubts  were  it  not  for  the  bias  of  sectarian 
religiousness  upon  the  matter.  The  statistics  of  education 
in  the  United  States,  as  they  can  be  gathered  from  the  first 
report  of  the  National  Commissioner  of  Education,  which 
was  published  only  a  few  months  ago,  are  convincing  of  the 
wide  acceptance  of  the  public-school  system  and  the  liberal 
appropriation  of  such  advantages  as  it  has  to  give.  "  The 
total  number  of  pupils  enrolled  in  the  schools  of  all  grades 
in  all  the  States  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1889,  was 
13,726,574.  In  this  number  is  not  included  the  attendance 
on  evening  schools  or  schools  for  art,  manual  and  industrial 
training,  trades,  business,  or  schools  for  the  defective,  de- 
pendent, and  delinquent  classes,  or  schools  for  Indians." 
These  aggregated  228,280  more.  Now,  of  children  from  six 
to  twenty  years  of  age  there  were  in  the  United  States,  that 
year,  20,700,000,  so  that  there  was  an  actual  attendance  of 
sixty-seven  per  cent  of  all  these  and  ninety  per  cent  of  all 
those  from  six  to  sixteen,  inclusive,  the  inferior  limits  of  the 
school-going  period;  an  admirable  showing.  Of  the  13,- 
726,574  in  all  the  schools,  12,291,259  were  in  the  common 
schools,  1,435,315  in  those  of  a  private  and  parochial  char- 
acter. These  figures  measure  the  appreciation  of  the  com- 
mon-school system  by  the  people  of  the  United  States.  They 
show  that  it  is  very  general.  There  are  others  which  show 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  411 

that  it  is  very  warm.  From  1870  to  1889  the  value  of  pub- 
lic-school property  increased  from  $130,000,000  to  $323,- 
000,000 — more  than  twice  as  fast  as  the  population ;  while 
the  annual  expenditure  rose  in  the  same  time  from  $63,000,- 
000  to  $132,000,000 — $2.16  per  capita  for  every  person  young 
or  old,  $16.51  for  every  pupil  in  attendance  in  the  public 
schools.  It  has  been  said  of  Gladstone  that  he  can  make 
figures  sing.  It  seems  to  me  that  of  their  own  free  motion 
these  figures  sing  and  dance  for  joy.  I  should  have  said 
that  the  amount  per  capita  in  the  Southern  States  nearly 
doubled  in  the  period  we  are  considering. 

That  we  have  in  these  statistics  not  a  matter  for  con- 
gratulation but  one  for  serious  apprehension  and  regret  is, 
we  are  all  aware,  the  opinion  of  a  considerable  class  in  the 
United  States.  "  We  are  all  socialists  now,"  says  Sir  Will- 
iam Vernon  Harcourt ;  but  it  is  clear  that  we  are  not.  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  may  not  have  as  many  followers  in  dread 
of  over-legislation  and  "the  new  tyranny"  as  he  has  in 
his  doctrine  of  evolution,  but  he  has  many,  and  some  of 
them  are  men  of  great  ability.  Witness  the  volume  called 
A  Plea  for  Liberty — the  work  of  several  hands.  In  this 
country  the  teachings  of  Emerson,  and  of  the  transcendent- 
alists  generally,  so  jealous  of  the  inroads  of  the  state  and 
of  society  upon  the  individual  life,  nourished  a  dread  of  so- 
cial interference  which  has  not  yet  spent  its  force.  But  we 
are  all  socialists  to  a  much  greater  degree  than  we  imagine 
till  we  are  reminded  of  the  extent  of  our  unconscious  so- 
cialism by  some  antisocialist  or  some  sober  second  thought 
in  our  own  breasts.  We  are  all  socialists  in  the  paving, 
lighting,  and  cleaning  of  our  city  streets,  and  the  system 
often  works  so  badly,  especially  in  the  cleaning  part,  that 
individual  effort  has  to  be  invoked  to  better  the  condition. 
We  are  socialists  in  the  care  of  our  highways,  and  annually 
each  country-side  beholds  a  "  slaughter  of  the  innocents  "  that 
breaks  the  heart  of  every  man  who  loves  the  goodly  trees. 
But  that  is  because  the  socialism  is  poor  and  bad,  or  because 
there  is  not  enough  of  it ;  not  enough  intelligent  control  to 
stay  the  spoiler's  hand.  We  are  also  socialists  in  our  postal 
and  coast  service  systems,  in  both  of  which  Mr.  Spencer 
thinks  we  should  do  better  under  private  management,  as 
do  not  I,  especially  so  long  as  private  criticism  can  be 
brought  to  bear  on  the  defects  of  our  socialistic  methods. 
We  are  socialists,  again,  in  our  protective  tariff,  industrial 
socialists — socialists  in  that  department  where  socialism  is 


412  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

most  difficult  to  work,  unless  it  be  objected  that  socialism 
is  a  method  that  considers  the  good  of  all  and  not  the  benefit 
of  a  special  class  to  the  detriment  of  others,  as  some  think 
protection  does ;  though  it  must  be  conceded  that  it  does 
not  so  appear  to  many  of  its  ablest  and  most  ardent  advo- 
cates, wherein  I  can  not  follow  them  with  equal  steps.  To 
the  amount  of  socialism  we  already  have  upon  us,  some,  who 
are  by  no  means  bitten  by  the  socialistic  idea  as  an  ideal 
scheme  of  life,  would  add  the  railroad  system  and  the  tele- 
graphic, and  one's  personal  experience  with  the  delays  of 
the  latter  and  the  high  temperature  and  stoviness  of  winter 
trains  is  apt  to  make  him  feel  that  any  change  would  be  an 
improvement.  Only  remember  Mr.  Emerson's  general  truth 
which  has  many  special  applications :  "  When  there  is  rot 
in  the  potato,  what  is  the  use  of  having  larger  crops  ?  "  When 
there  is  rot  in  the  civil  service,  what  is  the  use  of  having 
more  civil  offices  ?  No  more  till  we  have  checked  the  rot ! 

In  this  wide  range  of  unacknowledged  socialism  the  com- 
mon school  holds  a  conspicuous  and,  in  the  eyes  of  many, 
the  most  honored  place.  Those  who  are  convinced  that  the 
anarchic  theory  of  society  is  the  true  theory  will  not  hold 
it  guiltless  of  complicity  in  the  defects  belonging  to  its  class. 
Those  who  are  convinced  that  the  socialistic  theory  of  so- 
ciety is  the  true  theory  will  infer  the  advisability  of  the 
common-school  system  from  the  ideal  excellence  of  the  gen- 
eral system  of  which  it  is  a  part.  But  if  the  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath,  and  if  the 
same  is  true  of  every  social  institution,  then  we  shall  not 
permit  our  theories,  one  way  or  the  other,  to  determine  how 
much  or  how  little  socialism  we  shall  admit  into  our  body 
politic.  We  shall  prefer  the  life  of  the  patient  to  the  beauty 
of  the  operation  every^  time,  and  take  and  leave  so  much  of 
the  socialistic  method  in  the  post-office,  tariff,  highway,  rail- 
way, telegraph,  or  common  school,  as  seems,  to  the  best  of 
our  judgment,  knowledge,  and  belief,  to  be  for  the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number,  though  all  the  theories  in 
creation  go  to  everlasting  wreck.  "  Gray,  my  dear  friend," 
said  the  wise  Goethe,  "  is  all  theory,  and  green  the  shining 
tree  of  life." 

"  The  end  of  government  is  the  good  of  mankind."  It  was 
John  Locke  who  said  it,  and  a  better  end  has  yet  to  be  sug- 
gested or  devised.  If  that  end  can  be  attained  by  reducing 
government  to  a  police  force,  preventing  mutual  inter- 
ference, or  by  going  one  step  further  and  abolishing  the 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  413 

police  force  in  favor  of  complete  and  universal  anarchy,  let 
it  be  so  attained.  I  leave  the  post-office  and  the  tariff  and  the 
railroads  and  the  telegraph  for  others  to  consider.  As  for 
education,  I  am  convinced  that  America  has  not  chosen  the 
wrong  road,  and  that  she  is  not  being  followed  by  Great 
Britain  and  the  countries  of  Continental  Europe  to  their 
hurt  and  shame.  Government  ~by  the  people  demands  uni- 
versal education,  and  that  this  can  not  be  trusted  to  the 
individual  impulses  and  tastes  of  the  community  is  made  evi- 
dent by  a  wide  experience  of  the  methods  and  results  which 
have  signalized  the  voluntary  system.  It  is  no  socialistic 
dreamer ;  it  is  the  hard-headed  Huxley,  as  jealous  of  any 
real  infringement  of  the  rights  of  individuals  as  Spencer 
himself,  who  says:  "If  the  positive  advancement  of  the 
peace,  wealth,  and  the  intellectual  and  moral  development 
of  its  members  are  objects  which  the  Government,  as  the 
representative  of  the  corporate  authority  of  society,  may 
justly  strive  after,  in  fulfillment  of  its  end — the  good  of 
mankind — then  it  is  clear  that  the  Government  may  under- 
take to  educate  the  people.  For  education  promotes  peace 
by  teaching  men  the  realities  of  life  and  the  obligations 
which  are  involved  in  the  very  existence  of  society ;  it  pro- 
motes intellectual  development,  not  only  by  training  the 
individual  intellect,  but  by  sifting  out  from  the  masses  of 
ordinary  and  inferior  capacities  those  which  are  competent 
to  increase  the  general  welfare  by  occupying  higher  posi- 
tions ;  and,  lastly,  it  promotes  morality  and  refinement  by 
teaching  men  to  discipline  themselves,  and  by  leading  them 
to  see  that  the  highest,  as  it  is  the  only  permanent,  content 
is  to  be  attained  not  by  groveling  in  the  rank  and  steaming 
valleys  of  sense,  but  by  continual  striving  toward  those 
high  peaks  where,  resting  in  eternal  calm,  reason  discerns 
the  undefined  but  bright  ideal  of  the  highest  good — a  cloud 
by  day,  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night."  If  it  be  objected  to  this 
lofty  justification  of  public  education  that  it  is  the  higher 
education  which  Professor  Huxley  has  in  mind,  I  can  only 
say  that  no  one  is  likely  to  defend  the  public  institution  of 
the  higher  education  without  a  fortiori  defending  the  pub- 
lic institution  of  the  lower.  Natural  selection  and  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  demand  a  favorable  environment  here  as 
elsewhere  for  the  ideal  varieties.  Boys  must  not  "  uncom- 
mended  die"  who,  if  they  had  an  elementary  education, 
would  certainly  discover  aptitudes  for  higher  and  the  highest 
things.  Public  education  is  a  sower  who  goes  forth  to  sow. 


414  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

Some  of  his  seed  falls  by  the  wayside.  Some  of  it  among 
thorns.  But  some  falls  on  good  ground,  and  the  chance  or 
that  is  quite  enough  to  justify  the  whole  expense.  Yet  over 
and  above  the  best  varieties  which  it  preserves  to  satisfy  the 
hunger  of  mankind,  it  nourishes  millions  of  growths  which 
have  their  humbler  value  in  the  great  economy  of  God. 

If  the  population  of  the  United  States  were  homogeneous — 
either  Protestant  or  Catholic — the  perpetuity  of  our  public- 
school  system  would  not  have  much  to  fear  from  the 
theoretic  anarchist.  But  he  has  an  ally  much  stronger 
than  himself  in  the  Roman  Catholic  assault  upon  our  public 
schools  as  irreligious  or  as  unreligious  and  unmoral ;  which, 
too,  has  an  ally  in  the  sentiment  of  justice  which  has  led 
many  Protestants,  especially  the  more  liberal,  to  conclude 
that  there  is  no  way  of  doing  justice  to  the  Catholics  in  a 
system  of  public  education,  and  that  the  only  way  out  of 
the  muddle  is  to  abolish  the  common  schools  and  let  chaos 
come  again,  trusting  that  some  better  cosmos  may  emerge  in 
time.  For  it  is  evident  that  to  secularize  the  schools  is  for 
the  Romanist  a  consummation  as  little  to  be  wished  as  the 
reading  of  the  Protestant  Bible.  If  secularization  would 
satisfy  him,  the  way  out  ought  to  be  simple.  Our  national 
Government  is  a  purely  secular  institution,  and  though  in 
several  of  the  State  governments  there  are  lurking  vestiges 
of  the  old  relation  between  Church  and  State,  it  is  our 
national  Government  that  furnishes  the  home  to  which  all 
the  practical  dealings  of  the  several  States  would  do  well  to 
conform ;  and  that  home  is  the  "  soul  liberty  "  to  which 
Cotton  and  Winthrop  for  all  their  nobleness  had  not 
attained,  but  which  Roger  Williams  set  in  the  forefront  of 
our  civilization  to  guide  us  for  all  time.  I  trust  that  there 
will  come  a  time  when  the  Bible  shall  so  take  its  rightful 
place  at  the  head  of  the  world's  literature  that  it  may  be 
read — wisely  selected  portions  of  it — in  our  public  schools 
without  fear  and  without  reproach.  Why  even  now  may 
there  not  be  "  local  option  "  in  the  matter  ?  Where  a  com- 
munity can  have  it  without  protest  there  let  it  be.  The 
liberal,  the  radical,  would  be  truer  to  his  principles,  I  think, 
in  welcoming  such  local  option  than  in  joining  hands  with 
the  Roman  Catholic  objector ;  and  if  in  public  assemblies 
the  majority  prefer  an  opening  prayer,  why  should  the 
liberal  object,  or  to  the  Thanksgiving  proclamation  ?  I  love 
"  these  roots  that  feed  upon  the  past,"  and,  if  I  did  not,  I 
should  not  wish  to  prevent  others  from  enjoying  their  sweet 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  415 

taste.  Think,  too,  what  an  opportunity  the  clergyman  in 
opposition  misses  who  is  no  longer  expected  to  read  that 
proclamation  with  its  closing  formula  which  made  almost 
the  happiest  moment  of  the  year  for  my  young  heart.  To 
one  debarred  from  "preaching  politics,"  how  expressive 
might  that  formula  become  !  Thus,  for  example, "  David  B. 
Hill,  Governor.  God  save  the  commonwealth  of  New 
York!"  But  these  are  lesser  things.  In  all  seriousness, 
an  ounce  of  mother- wit  is  worth  a  pound  of  clergy  in  these 
things,  and  will  outweigh  their  scruples.  Time  was,  I 
might  have  added,  "  and  their  drams " ;  but  that  is  past. 
In  all  our  smaller  towns  and  villages  a  little  common  sense 
will  generally  set  the  matter  right.  Roman  Catholic  chil- 
dren can  come  a  little  later  in  the  morning,  after  the  Bible 
has  been  read,  or  some  hour  during  the  week  they  may  be 
let  off  to  receive  parochial  instruction.  In  our  great  cities, 
I  need  hardly  say,  these  makeshifts  do  not  count.  There, 
when  the  Roman  Catholic  demand  is  made  either  for  a  per 
capita  portion  of  the  school  fund  or  exemption  from  taxa- 
tion in  that  proportion  which  the  school  tax  bears  to  the 
general  tax,  the  Protestant  part  of  the  community  should 
be  prepared  at  once  to  make  the  required  concession  or  to 
make  the  schools  so  absolutely  secular  that  the  objectors' 
occupation  will  be  gone.  As  against  anything  less  absolute 
the  Roman  Catholics  have  a  perfect  right  to  the  concession 
they  demand — part  of  the  school  fund,  or  proportionate 
exemption  from  taxation.  Make  your  religion  ever  so  little 
Protestant  short  of  absolute  secularization,  and  you  make 
the  Roman  Catholic  a  present  of  the  war-cry  of  the  Revo- 
lution :  "  Taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny."  You 
tax  him  and  he  can  not  conscientiously  be  represented  in 
our  public  schools.  That  is  a  ground  you  never  can  main- 
tain, and  consequently  every  little  while  we  hear  of  some 
more  sensible  or  conscientious  person  who  says :  "  The 
Roman  Catholics  are  right.  They  must  have  their  share  of 
the  school  fund  or  their  school  taxes  must  be  remitted." 
Yes,  till  we  secularize  our  schools.  Forever  and  ever,  No, 
if  we  do  that.  But  there  are  those  who  contend  that  even 
then  we  should  make  the  required  concession — not  Romanists 
only,  but  the  most  liberal  Protestants.  I  can  not  find  the 
argument  for  such  a  plea.  The  ideal  here  is  that  which  is 
the  constitutional  law  of  California — that  no  money  or 
property  shall  be  appropriated  by  the  State  or  any  munici- 
pality for  any  school  not  exclusively  controlled  by  the  State 


416  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

or  municipality.  Otherwise  you  have  that  "  establishment 
of  religion  "  which  is  prohibited  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  and  should  be  by  every  other.  As  between 
the  sharing  of  the  school  fund  and  the  remission  of  taxes 
there  is  not  a  particle  of  moral  difference.  Facit  per  alium 
facit  per  se.  Furnishing  equal  education  for  all,  the  State 
'has  no  more  call  or  right  to  furnish  special  education  for 
some  than  to  furnish  the  man  who  prefers  a  private  cesspool 
in  his  own  yard,  with  so  much  from  the  general  tax  for 
sewerage  as  will  allow  him  to  have  one.  Henry  Thoreau 
used  the  "  old  Marlborough  road  "  and  other  roads  in  and 
about  Concord  as  much  as  anybody,  and  still  declined  to 
pay  his  regular  tax,  saying  to  Alcott,  who  came  to  see  him 
in  jail,  in  answer  to  his  "  Henry,  why  are  you  here  ? " 
"  Why,  Mr.  Alcott,  are  you  not  here  ? "  But  if  he  had 
wholly  neglected  the  roads  and  gone  entirely  across  lots  on 
his  outings  he  would  have  had  no  better  case.  There  were 
the  roads  provided  for  the  good  of  all.  Let  him  use  them 
or  not,  he  must  help  pay  for  them. 

Universal  suffrage  demands  universal  education.  For  a 
man  to  vote  who  can  not  read  his  vote  or  write  his  name  is 
evidently  monstrous  and  absurd.  This  means  compulsory 
education ;  that  the  means  provided  shall  not  run  to  waste ; 
and  that  the  State  or  the  municipality  can  not  forego  the 
superintendence  of  all  elementary  training.  It  has  no  right 
to  compel  attendance  on  its  own  schools.  It  has  a  right  to 
see  to  it  that  the  education  in  private  and  parochial  schools 
is  what  it  ought  to  be.  If  this  is  socialism  we  must  make 
the  most  of  it. 

The  best  counterblast  to  the  parochial  system  is  not  sec- 
tarian opposition,  but  the  so  evident  superiority  of  our  com- 
mon schools  that  the  Roman  Catholics  shall  see  our  good 
works  and  glorify  the  administration  which  makes  them 
possible,  often  much  easier  because  of  the  strong  infusion 
in  that  administration  of  the  blood  which  ran  in  Burke's 
and  G-rattan's  and  O'Connell's  veins.  For  all  the  faults  in- 
hering in  our  public  school  instruction,  it  is  evident  that  the 
parochial  instruction  generally  has  been  much  inferior  to 
that.  Make  it  still  more  so,  and  the  parochial  schools  can 
not  maintain  the  ruinous  competition.  It  is  not  in  human 
nature  to  pay  a  premium  on  an  inferior  article  when  the 
superior  article  can  be  had  at  the  market  price. 

The  relation  of  private  schools  to  citizenship  has  caused 
no  little  sorrow  and  anxiety  for  the  patriotic  mind.  Some- 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  417 

times  there  comes  along  a  socialist  so  rampant,  or  a  patriot 
so  fierce,  that  he  would  compel  the  public  education  of  every 
child  in  the  community.  But  this  is  foolishness.  The  pri- 
vate schools,  while  generally  inferior  to  the  public  schools,  are 
sometimes  their  superiors.  At  the  least  they  relieve  the 
overcrowding  which  is  the  curse  and  shame  of  public  edu- 
cation in  our  great  cities.  At  the  best  they  offer  an  impor- 
tant criticism  and  rebuke  to  the  defective  methods  of  the 
public  schools  with  their  almost  invariable  tendency  to  run 
every  child  in  the  same  mold  and  turn  out  a  multitude  of 
pupils  as  much  alike  in  their  acquirements  as  the  victims  of 
our  great  orphan  asylums  are  in  their  dress.  In  this  con- 
nection a  very  important  relation  of  education  to  citizenship 
is  brought  home  to  us.  The  citizenship  of  an  autocratic  or 
oligarchic  state  requires  dull  acquiescence  and  passive  obe- 
dience in  the  constituent  member  of  the  community.  The 
citizenship  of  a  democratic  republic  requires  free  intelli- 
gence. The  education  provided  by  the  state  should  be  such 
as  to  encourage  this.  Is  this  demand  well  met  in  our 
American  public-school  education  ?  It  is  not.  It  too  fre- 
quently reverses  the  natural  order  of  development,  which  is, 
first,  that  which  is  concrete,  and  then  that  which  is  ab- 
stract, and  makes  the  early  education  a  matter  of  words  and 
rules,  and  not  a  matter  of  things,  of  observation.  This  is 
the  method,  Prof.  Harris  tells  us,  to  produce  the  conserva- 
tive mind,  and  we  may  thank  it  in  good  measure  for  the 
fact  that  the  American  mind  is  more  conservative  and  retro- 
gressive at  almost  every  point  than  the  European.  No  one 
can  compare  the  current  literature  of  England  with  that  of 
America  and  not  be  convinced  that  the  former  is  a  litera- 
ture of  much  freer  thought.  The  way  in  which  our  Ameri- 
can Baptists,  Methodists,  and  Presbyterians  sleep  on  and 
take  their  rest  after  their  Scotch  and  English  cousins  are 
wide  awake  to  the  new  theology,  teaches  the  same  lesson : 
that  learning  things  by  rote,  the  mnemonic  craze  of  American 
public-school  education,  is  the  worst  possible  preparation  for 
the  duties  of  an  American  citizen  or  the  responsibilities  of 
the  religious  life.  Thrice  welcome,  then,  be  every  private 
school  that  sets  over  against  the  abstractions  and  the  uni- 
formities of  the  public  school  the  methods  of  concrete  ob- 
servation and  the  free  adaptation  of  the  curriculum  to  the 
individual  mind,  making  not  the  willful  choice  but  the 
manifest  faculty  of  the  boy  or  girl  elective  of  their  course. 
It  is  said  that  parents  educating 'their  children  in  private 


418  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

schools  will  have  no  care  to  make  the  public  schools  what 
they  should  be.  But  no  wise  parent  can  be  expected  to  give 
his  children  a  lower  education  when  he  can  secure  and  can 
afford  a  higher.  The  criticism  of  that  higher  on  the  lower 
pays  his  moral  debt. 

If,  in  my  discussion  of  religious  education  in  the  schools, 
I  have  seemed  to  give  in  my  adhesion  to  the  opinion  that 
secular  education — i.  e.,  education  without  formal  religious 
exercises — is  irreligious,  as  it  is  often  called,  or  even  unre- 
ligious  or  unmoral,  I  have  done  what  I  must  hasten  to  undo. 
Willing,  for  all  that  I  can  see,  to  let  each  separate  commu- 
nity retain  the  traditional  forms  where  this  can  be  done 
without  friction,  alas !  I  say  for  any  school  in  which  such 
forms — the  reading  of  the  Bible  and  a  prayer — are  all  that 
it  can  do  for  morality  and  religion.  Incidentally  and  una- 
voidably it  can  do  much  more,  if  the  teacher  and  the  teach- 
ing are  both  what  they  should  be.  The  moral  and  the  re- 
ligious teaching  which  can  not  be  got  rid  of  in  the  most 
secular  instruction,  so  long  as  it  is  deep  and  true,  which 
sticks  to  all  such  instruction  like  the  fairy  Kobold  to  the 
household  cart — such  religious  teaching  will,  I  imagine, 
have  to  be  endured  by  Protestants  and  Catholics,  Gnostics 
and  Agnostics,  with  a  patient  mind.  For  such  religious 
teaching  sings  the  song  the  Brahmin  sings  : 

"  They  reckon  ill  who  leave  me  out ; 
When  me  they  fly  I  am  the  wings." 

Show  me  the  man  who  can  teach  astronomy,  who  can 
teach  geology,  who  can  teach  biology,  who  can  teach  history 
without  teaching  religion,  and  I  will  show  you  a  man  who 
can  paint  the  pictures  of  George  Inness  without  being  an 
artist,  or  write  the  verse  of  Browning  without  being  a  poet. 
Theology  is  still  " Scientia  Scientiarum"  the  science  of  sci- 
ences ;  and  religion  is,  in  part  at  least,  the  emotion  of  emo- 
tions, the  aggregate  of  all  those  emotions  which  are  awak- 
ened in  the  mind  by  the  facts  and  laws  and  harmonies 
which  the  various  sciences  reveal.  I  had  a  teacher  once, 
Marshall  Conant,  the  principal  of  the  Bridgewater  State 
Normal  School,  in  Massachusetts,  who  was  as  careful  as 
ever  a  teacher  was  to  avoid  everything  sectarian  in  his  in- 
struction, everything  formally  religious.  But  to  hear  him 
speak  with  face  inspired  and  trembling  tones  of  the  won- 
ders of  the  human  body  or  the  sidereal  universe  without  a 
thrill  of  wonder,  love,  and  praise,  was  as  impossible  as  for 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  419 

the  musical  person  to  hear  Paderewski's  playing  without 
some  trembling  of  the  heart.  Would  that  thrill,  think  you, 
have  been  any  more  religious  if  we  had  stopped  to  think 
how  we  should  spell  the  name  of  that  Eternal  Power  who 
doth  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong,  and  in  whom  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being  ?  We  have  all  heard  of  the 
good  woman  who  liked  Shakespeare  very  much  as  a  man, 
but  did  not  like  his  works.  And  there  are  those  who  like 
God  very  much  as  a  name,  but  do  not  like  his  works.  That 
is  the  best  religion  to  my  thinking  which  most  likes  his 
works  and  cares  least  about  his  name.  And  wherever  the 
wonders  of  the  material  universe  are  so  taught  as  to  stir  the 
young  heart  of  a  boy  or  girl  with  admiration  and  with 
wonder  and  with  awe,  there  will  be  religion,  though  the 
school  be  as  completely  secular  as  a  school  can  possibly  be 
made. 

And  as  it  is  with  religion  so  it  is  with  morality.  When 
cleanliness  and  neatness  and  order  and  punctuality  and 
truthfulness  and  honor  and  fidelity  are  not  moral  virtues, 
then  you  may  have  a  well-managed  and  well-disciplined 
school,  in  which  morality  is  not  taught — then  and  not  be- 
fore. Besides,  a  school  without  moral  teaching  must  be  a 
school  in  which  the  reading  and  the  recitation  shall  avoid 
all  that  is  best  in  literature,  all  that  reports  the  sacrifices 
and  nobilities  of  human  life.  There  are  school-readers 
which  do  this  with  tolerable  success,  but  we  do  not  cry  for 
them  in  the  schools  to  which  our  children  go.  We  like  to 
have  them  read  of  Arnold  Winkelried  and  Samuel  Adams, 
of  Father  Damien  and  the  Jesuits  of  North  America,  of 
noble  captains  who  have  been  the  last  to  leave  their  sinking 
ships — yea,  have  gone  down  through  the  chill  waters  to  the 
heart  of  God ;  and  of  George  Nidiver,  who  shot  the  bear 
which  was  nearing  his  unarmed  companion,  and  met  the 
other  with  unweaponed  heart.  You  must  eliminate  from 
your  readers  and  from  literature  all  such  stuff  as  this — the 
stuff  of  which  the  best  morality  is  made — before  you  can 
eliminate  morality  and  the  teaching  of  morality  from  the 
public  schools. 

But  while  believing,  as  I  do,  that  the  best  teaching  of 
morality  is  by  the  moral  order  of  the  school  and  by  the  hero- 
isms and  fidelities  which  literature  has  enshrined  with  its 
most  perfect  art,  I  believe  that  all  that  is  best  in  morals  can 
be  formally  taught  in  schools  in  such  a  way  that  no  Protest- 
ant or  Roman  Catholic  of  ordinary  intelligence  would  make 


420  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

the  least  objection.  The  way  I  mean  is  that  set  forth  in  a 
book,  Conduct  as  a  Fine  Art,  which  contains  my  friend  N. 
P.  Oilman's  Laws  of  Daily  Conduct,  and  Character  Build- 
ing, by  Edward  P.  Jackson,  one  of  the  masters  in  the  Bos- 
ton Latin  School.  True,  to  use  either  of  these  helps  suc- 
cessfully would  require  something  in  the  teacher  akin  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  book.  But  text-books  which  do  not  require 
good  teachers  have  yet  to  be  discovered.  God  grant  that 
their  Columbus  be,  as  yet,  unborn  ! 

Universal  education  ought  to  mean  universal  taxation. 
Every  man  who  is  not  a  pauper  ought  to  do  something  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  common  weal.  No  sentimental 
dread  of  a  property  qualification  ought  to  prevent  the  levy- 
ing of  a  poll-tax  upon  every  citizen  as  such.  You  may 
make  a  man  as  much  more  precious  than  the  gold  of  Ophir 
as  you  please,  but  a  man  who  can  not  contribute  at  least  two 
dollars  a  year  for  all  the  benefits  which  he  derives  from  the 
town,  county,  and  state  in  which  he  lives  has  no  stuff  in 
him  for  a  citizen.  If  I  am  proud  of  anything  in  the  course 
of  my  own  life,  it  is  that  when  in  the  Cambridge  Divinity 
School  I  lived  seven  weeks  on  five  dollars.  Frugal  were  my 
repasts,  but  the  man  who  would  not  willingly  make  his  own 
as  frugal  for  a  week  or  two,  and  put  his  family  on  the  same 
course  if  need  be,  to  pay  some  part  of  that  which  goes  for 
all,  should  never  have  a  vote.  In  the  mean  time  no  objec- 
tion can  be  less  generally  applicable  to  public  education  as 
developed  in  America  than  that  which  has  overtopped  all 
others  for  the  British  mind — that  it  makes  education  char- 
ity. One  would  suppose  that  the  school  fund  came  down 
entire  from  heaven  like  the  mystic  stone  of  the  Mohamme- 
dan temple  at  Mecca,  when,  in  fact,  the  people  are  but  put- 
ting their  hands  in  their  own  pockets.  Only  there  should 
be  no  exceptions' to  the  rule.  Universal  education  ought  to 
mean  universal  taxation.  "  What  will  you  have,  quoth  God, 
pay  for  it  and  take  it." 

Elementary  education  is  essential  to  citizenship.  Let 
there  be  no  educational  restriction  of  the  suffrage,  and  still 
a  man  should  be  ashamed  to  cast  the  blanket-ballot  which 
he  can  not  read  with  his  own  eyes  and  correct  with  his  own 
hand.  But  much  more  than  elementary  education  is  essen- 
tial. "  The  three  Es  "  are  a  glorious  trinity,  and  geography 
with  them  makes  an  excellent  quaternity,  but  to  an  intelli- 
gent citizen  secondary  education  is  indispensable ;  and  for 
the  highest  functions  of  citizenship,  those  of  leadership  and 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  421 

guidance,  the  higher  education  is  as  essential  as  reading  and 
writing  are  to  the  humblest  voter  at  the  polls.  And  what 
are  we  doing  in  America  to  meet  these  requisitions  ?  In 
1889  there  were  12,000,000  children  of  the  elementary 
school  age.  How  many  of  them  were  in  the  elementary 
schools?  12,931,259.  The  seeming  paradox  is  easily  ex- 
plained. There  were  931,259  pupils  in  these  schools  who 
were  under  six  or  over  fourteen.  But  now  observe  the  sta- 
tistics for  the  secondary  school  years,  from  fourteen  to 
twenty.  There  were  4,750,000  possible  pupils  for  these 
years.  There  were  actually  enrolled  668,461 — less  than  one 
seventh  of  the  youth  of  secondary  age.  Of  the  4,000,000  of 
right  age  for  the  higher  education  there  were  only  126,854 
enrolled — less  than  one  thirtieth  of  the  quota.  Shall  we  say  : 
"  No  wonder  that  our  politics  is  so  little  marked  by  sound 
intelligence  "  ?  But  it  would  be  infinitely  worse  off  than  it 
is  if  there  were  not  an  education  which  is  not  of  the  schools, 
an  education  of  books,  of  the  free  library,  of  business,  of 
life,  which  is  sometimes  so  effectual  that  the  young  men  it 
graduates  put  to  an  open  shame  the  graduates  of  the  col- 
leges and  schools.  And  lest  we  mourn  too  grievously  over 
the  statistics  of  our  secondary  and  higher  education,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  there  are  many  tasks  and  situa- 
tions for  which  factory  and  bench  and  field  are  a  much 
better  education  than  our  higher  schools  and  colleges  afford. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  could  bear  a 
very  great  extension  of  our  secondary  and  collegiate  educa- 
tion without  social  detriment,  and  with  great  advantage  to 
our  citizenship  in  all  its  range.  I  need  hardly  specify  what 
lines  of  study  would  make  up  the  sum  of  this  advantage, 
they  are  so  obvious  to  the  most  casual  observation.  One  of 
them  would  certainly  be  that  developed  in  John  Fiske's 
Civil  Government  in  the  United  States,  a  book  which  every 
voter  in  the  country  ought  not  merely  to  read  but  to  con 
and  inwardly  digest,  and  to  that  end  to  have  a  copy  of  his 
own.  How  different  the  intelligence  which  the  voter  who 
had  been  thus  qualified  would  bring  to  the  town-meeting 
and  to  the  appreciation  of  all  political  questions  from  the 
ignorance  which  is  now  so  nearly  universal !  There's  some- 
thing rotten  in  our  several  States  that  our  political  con- 
sciousness is  so  much  less  vivid  than  it  was  a  hundred  years 
ago.  To  increase  its  vividness,  such  a  book  as  Mr.  Fiske's 
Civil  Government  would  go  far,  and  for  the  older  reader 
Mr.  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth,  so  faithful  in  its 


422  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

criticism,  and  so  generous  in  its  appreciation  of  our  worse 
and  better  things.  But  to  such  political  anatomy  as  these 
books  and  others  of  their  kind  make  known  to  us,  we  must 
add  the  political  physiology  which  our  history  and  political 
biography  reveal,  showing  the  system  in  its  dynamic  opera- 
tion. And  here  again  Mr.  Fiske  has  done  us  an  inestimable 
service.  If  there  was  ever  any  justice  in  the  comparative 
indifference  to  American  history  which  was  formerly  in 
vogue,  he  has  taken  away  our  reproach.  What  a  delightful 
tale  is  that  which  he  has  told  of  the  successive  eras  of  dis- 
covery and  exploration  and  settlement  and  revolution  and 
independent  organization !  There  is  this  answer  also  to  be 
made  to  the  indifference  named — that  English  history  is 
just  as  much  our  history  down  to  1776  as  it  is  that  of  our 
English  cousins.  Their  Hampden  and  Cromwell  are  as 
much  ours  as  their  Shakespeare  and  Milton.  It  was  their 
battle  just  as  much  as  ours,  as  every  student  knows,  that 
was  fought  out  at  Concord  and  Bunker  Hill  and  Trenton 
and  Princeton  and  Yorktown.  History  teaches  patriotism, 
but  it  is  not  the  only  means  of  teaching  it.  Patriotism  has 
had  its  poets,  and  their  poems  ought  to  be  the  refreshment 
and  delight  of  every  youth  and  maid.  "  I  see  them  muster 
in  a  gleaming  row" — the  long  and  endless  file.  Happy 
the  day  that  brings  to  the  ingenuous  heart  the  thrill,  the 
pang,  which  is  responsive  to  such  words  as  those  of  Long- 
fellow's :  "  Sail  on.  sail  on ! "  or  Paul  Eevere's  Eide, 
Lowell's  Present  Crisis  or  Commemoration  Ode,  Whittier's 
great  antislavery  songs,  Emerson's  Voluntaries,  Whit- 
man's Our  Captain,  or  Stedman's  Osawotomie  Brown. 
There  will  be  an  embarrassment  of  riches  for  the  teacher 
who  has  an  eye  and  heart  for  these  great  things.  He  need 
not  confine  himself  to  our  American  poets.  Are  not 
Milton's  sonnets  ours  and  Lycidas,  Lovelace's  song  On 
going  to  the  Wars,  Marvel's  Two  Kings,  Tennyson's  Wel- 
lington Ode,  Browning's  Herve  Kiel  and  Home  Thoughts 
from  the  Sea,  Doyle's  Private  of  the  Buffs  and  Lyall's 
Theology  in  Extremis — are  not  all  these  ours  by  right 
of  sympathy  and  admiration,  and  so  many  more  that  the 
young  scholar  has  no  need  to  read  one  worthless  thing 
from  the  beginning  of  his  primary  to  the  end  of  his 
collegiate  course  ?  And  then,  too,  at  the  risk  of  teaching 
morals,  and  perhaps  religion,  somehow  the  teaching  must 
make  plain  that  there  is  a  spurious  patriotism  as  well  as  the 
true  article.  It  is  that  which  says  "  Our  country,  right  or 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  423 

wrong,"  while  the  true  patriot  would  rather  see  her  fleets 
dispersed,  her  army  routed  by  the  puniest  foe,  than  to  have 
them  triumph  over  the  strongest  upon  earth  in  an  unjust  or 
shameful  cause.  True,  "  the  sheathed  blade  may  rust  with 
darker  sin,"  but  war  must  be  the  last  resort  of  justice ;  not 
the  first  of  spite,  as  it  is  too  often  in  the  double-leaded 
leading  editorials.  If  we  could  have  an  educated  press,  the 
education  not  less  moral  than  intellectual,  then  we  should 
have  the  general  assumption  that  each  offending  power  will 
do  exactly  what  it  should,  and  that  assumption  would  go  far 
to  make  the  wrong  things  right.  So  long  as  editorial  cocki- 
ness can  do  so  much  to  precipitate  a  needless  war,  there 
ought  to  be  some  understanding  that,  when  it  comes  to 
fighting,  the  editors  should  be  foremost  in  the  field. 

"  When  Islam's  army  marches,  place  a  beggar  in  the  van, 
And  the  frightened  host  of  infidels  will  rush  to  Hindustan." 

An  editorial  vanguard  might  have  no  such  disastrous 
effect  upon  the  enemy,  but  it  might  have  a  salutary  influ- 
ence upon  the  editorial  mind.  In  the  phrase  of  the  ungodly, 
they  would  "  know  how  it  is  themselves." 

The  whole  tendency  of  our  patriotism  is  too  much  to 
magnify  the  military  virtues  while  those  of  the  statesman 
are  left  unregarded.  Go  to  Washington,  that  beautiful 
city  of  which  Americans  may  well  be  proud,  and  you  will 
see  its  lovely  squares  or  circles  each  with  its  equestrian 
general,  General  Jackson  taking  the  responsibility  of  a  posi- 
tion horizontal  to  the  level  of  the  street.  The  fact  is  too 
much  a  symbol  of  an  inequality  which  ranges  wide  through 
all  the  patriotic  impulses  of  the  school  and  press,  and  gives 
the. statesman,  the  reformer,  the  educator,  the  inventor,  and 
the  poet  far  less  than  belongs  to  him  of  honor,  love,  and 
praise. 

It  is  not  enough  to  hope  that  the  ratio  of  college-bred 
men  to  the  population  may  be  indefinitely  increased.  The 
better  the  culture  the  better  the  citizen,  but  we  must  also 
hope  that  the  higher  education  of  the  country  may  become 
more  intimate  with  its  politics,  more  controlling  to  its  legis- 
lation. I  know  that  university  professors  are  called  doctri- 
naire, and  in  proof  that  they  "are  so  we  are  offered  the  un- 
doubted fact  that  they  are  ten  to  one  low-tariff  men  in  their 
expressed  opinions  and  free-traders  in  their  hearts.  But 
this  is  perhaps  only  what  we  should  expect  as  the  result  of 
studies  biased  neither  by  business  interests  nor  political 
28 


424  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

expectations.  Moreover,  the  most  stout  protectionists  will 
privately  assure  you  that  free  trade  is  the 

"  one  far-off  divine  event," 

and  that  they  do  not  favor  a  high  tariff — that  is,  not  a  very 
high  one,  only  a  pretty  high  one,  for  the  present,  until  our 
infant  industries  have  got  their  growth.  But  it  is  not  pro- 
posed to  recruit  our  legislators  from  college  faculties,  though 
these  have  taken  to  themselves  some  of  our  most  promising 
young  politicians  ;  it  is  proposed  to  recruit  them  somewhat 
more  largely  from  the  body  of  our  liberally  educated  men. 
If  Wendell  Phillips  distrusted  them,  there  was  Wendell 
Phillips  to  show  in  his  own  person  how  unwarrantable  was 
his  distrust.  The  Hon.  Theodore  Eoosevelt  does  not  lecture 
on  Qualifications  for  Office  without  having  proved  that  he 
possesses  them  in  an  eminent  degree,  and  he  is,  I  think,  a 
college  man.  It  was  another,  and  pre-eminently  the  scholar 
in  our  politics,  Charles  Sumner,  who,  April  30,  1864,  intro- 
duced the  first  bill  looking  to  that  reformation  of  our  civil 
service  of  which  Mr.  Eoosevelt  is  the  official  head,  and  of 
which  the  moral  head  for  twenty  years  and  more  has  been 
George  William  Curtis,  the  Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  the  presiding  genius  of  the  whole 
system  of  our  higher  education  in  collegiate  and  academic 
schools.  And  in  these  instances  we  have  no  exception  to  a 
rule.  The  rule  has  been  that  at  every  stage  of  our  develop- 
ment much  of  the  best  in  our  political  intelligence  and  in- 
spiration has  come  from  highly  educated  men.  Before  the 
scholar  in  politics  can  be  disdained,  we  must  make  up  our 
minds  to  disdain  Cotton  and  Winthrop  and  Hooker,  and 
many  another  the  founder  of  the  New  England  States,  James 
Otis  and  the  Adamses,  and  Witherspoon,  and  many  more 
of  that  great  company  who  achieved  our  independence  ;  we 
must  forget  that  Thomas  Jefferson,  of  William  and  Mary, 
wrote  the  Declaration,  and  James  Madison,  of  Princeton, 
well-nigh  our  Constitution,  which,  put  on  its  defense,  he 
with  Jay  and  Hamilton,  of  Columbia,  in  the  papers  of  The 
Federalist,  made  good  against  the  general  assault ;  we  must 
forget  that  Daniel  Webster  established  that  interpretation 
of  the  Constitution  against  which  the  armies  of  secession 
broke  in  vain ;  we  must  forget  how  many  men  of  college 
training  followed  the  lead  of  Garrison  ;  John  Quincy  Ad- 
ams's part  in  the  antislavery  conflict ;  Lowell's  Tyrtsean 
songs;  the  wrath  which  thundered  from  the  pulpits  in 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  425 

which  Beecher  and  Parker  stood  for  the  higher  law ;  and 
Seward's  "  irrepressible  conflict,"  to  say  nothing  of  John  A. 
Andrew's  distinction  at  Bowdoin,  which  was  to  be  the 
lowest  in  his  class.  That  was  because  a  college  course 
was  not  then  what  it  should  be — a  splendid  opportunity  for 
a  young  man  to  pounce  upon  his  own.  Across  the  Atlantic 
the  great  forms  of  Gladstone  and  Cavour  and  Stein  are  seen 
bringing  their  glory  and  honor  into  the  service  of  our  plea 
for  educated  politics,  the  scholar  in  the  halls  of  legislation 
and  the  places  of  executive  control.  I  do  not  forget  that 
neither  Washington  nor  Lincoln  was  a  college  man,  and 
many  have  done  well  in  politics  without  a  liberal  education, 
though  these  excel  them  all.  But  the  wider  the  range  of 
our  investigation  the  more  convincing  we  shall  find  the  ar- 
gument for  a  careful  educational  training  as  the  best  possi- 
ble training  for  the  legislator's  work,  the  best  possible  safe- 
guard against  the  vagaries  of  the  financial  schemer  and  the 
crudities  of  fanatic  zeal.  And  if  it  has  been  so  in  the  past, 
it  must  be  much  more  so  in  the  future  when  the  studies  of 
pur  secondary  and  higher  schools  and  colleges  are  brought 
into  more  intimate  relations  with  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try, her  economic  system,  and  the  structure  and  inter- 
pretation of  her  organic  law.  The  educational  system  of 
America  has  not  yet  attained  unto  the  highest  things,  but 
it  is  following  after  them  with  a  diligent  and  patient  mind. 
It  need  not  fear  the  Danaans  bringing  gifts — the  French 
and  Germans,  with  their  different  methods  widely  opposed 
and  yet  each  having  its  own  special  excellence.  It  need  not 
fear  to  change  in  any  way  that  is  for  the  better.  The  best, 
that  is  the  most  American.  And  the  better  the  education — 
the  more  intellectual,  the  more  moral,  the  more  practical, 
the  more  ideal — the  better  will  be  the  citizenship  which  it 
will  instruct,  ennoble,  and  inspire. 


426  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

WILLIAM  H.  MAXWELL,  PH.  D. : 

In  this  presence  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  say  one  word  of  eulo- 
gium  on  Mr.  Chad  wick  and  his  paper.  You  will  not  expect  me  to  fol- 
low him  through  all  his  argument  and  touch  upon  every  point  of  this 
vast  subject.  If  I  gathered  the  thought  of  the  lecturer,  he  reached 
the  conclusion  that  universal  suffrage  involves  the  necessity  of  uni- 
versal education.  From  this  he  deduced  the  necessity  of  compulsory 
education.  As  I  listened  to  his  great  array  of  statistics  I  regretted 
that  he  did  not  give  the  figures  as  to  illiteracy.  They  are  eloquent, 
and  show  that  in  the  United  States,  and  even  in  New  York  or  Massa- 
chusetts, we  are  far  from  having  reached  the  condition  of  Bavaria, 
Saxony,  Baden,  and  other  States  of  the  German  Empire.  We  have  in 
this  State  a  compulsory  education  law,  but  it  is  a  poor  one.  The  law 
reduces  the  necessity  of  school  attendance  to  a  minimum.  It  requires 
only  fourteen  weeks  each  year  for  children  between  eight  and  fourteen 
years  of  age.  The  law  is  so  poorly  drawn  and  badly  worded  that  any 
parent  desiring  to  violate  its  provisions  could  probably  do  so.  Only 
civil  process  can  be  brought  against  an  offender,  and  the  fine  is  one 
dollar  for  the  first  offense  and  five  dollars  for  the  second.  Again,  the 
law  is  defective  in  that  it  makes  no  provision  for  its  enforcement.  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  are  the  only  cities  in  the  State  which  are  making 
any  efforts  to  enforce  it.  There  is  a  proposed  law  now  before  the  Legis- 
lature which,  in  some  respects,  is  a  decided  improvement  on  the  pres- 
ent law,  but  is  still  far  from  satisfactory.  It  makes  failure  to  educate 
children  a  crime  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  It  proposes 
that  children  between  seven  and  twelve  shall  attend  school  from  Octo- 
ber 1st  to  June  1st.  From  twelve  to  fourteen,  children  must  attend  at 
least  twenty  weeks  in  each  year,  and  if  not  in  school  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  school  year  they  must  be  employed  in  some  useful 
occupation.  From  fourteen  to  sixteen  they  may  be  usefully  employed 
all  the  time ;  but  if  not,  they  must  be  in  school.  Any  locality  in 
which  the  authorities  shall  not  make  provision  for  the  enforcement  of 
this  law  shall  lose  its  share  of  the  school  funds.  The  defect  of  the 
law  is  that  it  does  not  require  that  instruction  shall  be  given  in  the 
English  language.  And  it  does  away  with  the  only  good  provision  of 
the  present  law — that  which  provides  for  the  punishment  of  those  who 
employ  children  in  unlawful  ways.  The  law  against  employing  chil- 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  427 

dren  in  factories  is  enforced  by  factory  inspectors.  As  the  agent  of 
the  Board  of  Education  some  years  ago,  I  found  the  greatest  obstacle 
to  the  enforcement  of  the  school  law  to  be  the  employment  of  children 
at  home  in  the  tenement  houses. 

Another  of  Mr.  Chadwick's  deductions  is  that  not  only  should  edu- 
cation be  compulsory,  but  the  State  should  see  to  it  that  education  in 
private  and  parochial  schools  is  what  it  ought  to  be.  I  can  hardly  say 
that  I  agree.  I  am  aware  that  that  is  the  plan  in  Germany.  There 
no  one  is  permitted  to  teach  in  public  or  private  schools  or  as  a  private 
tutor  unless  he  has  a  good  certificate,  and  all  private  schools  must 
conform  to  strict  rules  laid  down  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction. 
I  do  not  think  the  American  people  would  tolerate  such  regulations. 
Two  or  three  years  ago,  when  a  compulsory  education  law  had  passed 
both  houses  of  the  Legislature  and  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Governor, 
the  friends  of  the  private  schools  imagined  that  one  clause  gave  the 
public  authorities  control  over  licensing  teachers  in  private  schools. 
It  was  not  so,  but  the  feeling  developed  was  so  strong  that  the  Gov- 
ernor vetoed  the  bill.  But  Mr.  Chadwick  himself  supplied  the  best 
argument  against  his  own  position.  If  it  is  true  that  the  public 
schools  are  turning  out  children  all  of  one  pattern,  why  should  he 
want  to  extend  that  influence  ?  1  can  ask  with  him  and  Emerson : 
"  If  there  is  rot  in  the  potato,  what  is  the  use  of  raising  a  large  crop  f  " 

In  education,  as  in  every  other  department  of  life,  emulation  and  com- 
petition are  essential  to  progress.  I  should  like  to  see  every  parochial 
and  private  school  in  this  city  far  better  than  it  is,  not  merely  for  the 
sake  of  the  children  in  those  schools,  but  for  the  good  of  all ;  and  I 
should  also  like  to  see  the  public  schools  better  for  the  sake  of  the 
private  schools.  If  the  State  controls  the  education  of  all  the  children, 
it  will  have  the  power  to  develop  a  certain  type  of  character,  which  is 
a  dangerous  prerogative.  I  believe,  however,  that  the  right  of  the 
State  to  educate  involves  the  right  to  license  teachers,  and  to  set  a 
certain  minimum  limit  to  education.  The  law  ought  to  provide  that 
no  child  under  fourteen  should  be  permitted  to  work  until  he  has 
passed  a  certain  examination. 

The  common  schools  should  be  made  so  good  that  the  private  and 
parochial  schools  would  be  forced  to  be  equally  good  or  give  up  the 
competition.  I  do  not  claim  that  Brooklyn  schools  have  reached  that 
point.  I  think  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  be  modest.  In  the  Brook- 
lyn public  schools  there  is  some  exceedingly  bad  teaching ;  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases  the  teaching  is  very  good  ;  and  in  some  cases  it  is  as 
good  as  can  be  found  in  the  country.  Yet  the  schools  are  not  organ- 
ized in  the  best  way.  We  need  kindergartens.  Mr.  Chadwick  truly 
said  that  education  must  begin  in  the  concrete,  and  utilize  the  won- 


428  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

derful  self-activity  of  the  child.  Now,  little  ones  of  five  or  six  years 
old  are  put  in  classes  of  seventy  or  one  hundred,  or  even  more,  under 
one  teacher.  We  need  not  be  told  that  one  teacher  can  not  do  justice 
to  one  hundred  pupils.  The  remedy  is  to  put  the  young  children  into 
kindergarten  classes. 

The  lecture  was  a  magnificent  argument  for  the  scholar  in  politics. 
We  need  college  graduates  as  leaders;  and  that  makes  it  necessary 
that  the  public  schools  should  be  so  organized  as  to  lead  very  directly 
to  the  obtaining  of  a  liberal  education,  and  in  all  cases  where  the  pupil 
does  not  look  forward  to  a  higher  education,  to  give  him  a  taste  for 
reading  and  study.  Mr.  Chadwick  indicated  the  weakest  spot  in  the 
public-school  system — too  much  uniformity.  We  should  begin  to  dif- 
ferentiate earlier  than  we  do.  The  average  age  of  the  public-school 
graduate  is  fifteen  years.  If  he  goes  to  college,  it  takes  four  years  to 
prepare  and  four  years  to  get  through ;  then,  if  he  takes  a  profession,  it 
takes  three  years  more,  and  the  man  is  twenty-six  before  he  is  able  to 
earn  anything.  The  people  of  this  city  can  have  anything  they  de- 
mand in  the  way  of  improvements  in  public  education.  They  should 
demand  and  have  only  the  best. 

Miss  ELLEN  E.  KENYON,  PD.  M. : 

Part  of  the  ground  I  intended  to  cover  has  been  already  discussed 
by  Mr.  Maxwell.  I  will  adopt  his  eloquent  words  in  praise  of  the 
lecture  as  my  own,  and  also  what  he  says  as  to  licensing  teachers.  I 
dissent  from  none  of  the  main  points  of  the  lecture.  1  believe  in 
socialism  to  about  the  same  extent  as  Mr.  Chadwick.  There  is  a  whole- 
some dread  of  socialistic  tendencies  that  may  be  too  much  exaggerated. 
The  claims  of  the  extreme  anti-socialists  prove  that  they  have  not 
closely  followed  the  trend  of  evolution.  Man  has  ceased  to  be  the  un- 
conscious subject  of  evolution — the  blind  product  of  external  forces 
and  conditions ;  he  has  taken  evolution  into  his  own  hands.  But  as 
the  laws,  nevertheless,  are  fixed,  a  certain  amount  of  humility  is  be- 
coming. 

The  socialism  at  present  existing  in  our  civilized  communities  is  the 
product  of  growth  rather  than  of  deliberate  planning.  It  needs  re- 
forming, but  is  better  than  the  rank  individualism  of  the  monopolist. 
I  do  not  believe  in  creating  a  socialistic  monopoly  by  the  State.  I 
believe  in  the  admission  of  private  enterprise  to  free  and  fair  compe- 
tition with  every  public  enterprise.  It  is  unwise  to  allow  government 
monopoly  in  the  postal  business ;  and  the  public  school  has  no  right 
to  any  unfair  advantage  over  the  private  school.  Parents  who  prefer 
private  schools  should  be  released  from  their  share  of  expense  for  pub- 
lic education.  Why  not  allow  to  private  schools  out  of  the  public 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  429 

treasury  amounts  equal  to  the  pro  rata  cost  of  educating  their  chil- 
dren in  the  public  schools  f  This  would  take  away  the  last  argument 
from  those  who  object  to  the  public  schools  as  charity.  We  must 
make  education  compulsory,  and  have  public  schools  sufficient  in  num- 
ber and  efficiency  to  supply  what  private  schools  fail  to  supply ;  but 
not  so  protected  by  the  State  that  they  will  kill  the  private  schools. 

As  an  example  of  progressive  methods  in  education,  take  the  school 
of  Mrs.  Louisa  Hopkins,  containing  about  twenty  children.  She  used 
all  possible  means  to  excite  an  original  interest  on  the  part  of  the 
pupils.  Sometimes  she  would  take  them  to  the  sea-shore  for  a  day, 
and  the  next  day  the  facts  discovered  were  reviewed  and  set  in  order. 
One  day  they  went  fifteen  miles  to  see  an  old  sailor  who  had  a  collection 
of  curiosities  and  who  liked  to  talk.  This  trip  furnished  suggestions 
for  reading  for  several  days.  Such  methods  may  seem  impracticable 
in  our  large  city  schools.  But  if  the  State  undertakes  to  educate,  it 
should  educate.  Science  and  literature  must  become  the  basis  of 
public-school  education  before  it  can  give  up  its  legal  advantage  and 
compete  successfully  with  that  of  private  schools. 

It  is  said  that  secondary  education  is  requisite  to  intelligent  citizen- 
ship. True  ;  but  secondary  education  is  of  secondary  importance,  here 
as  elsewhere.  This  is  not  the  place  to  begin  reforms ;  they  should  be- 
gin at  the  bottom.  Make  the  primary  school  what  it  should  be.  Pri- 
mary education  based  upon  the  kindergarten  is  capable  of  opening 
every  avenue  of  culture.  But  this  requires  trained  teachers.  Build 
more  normal  schools,  supply  better  literature  for  the  children,  and  the 
press  will  soon  respond  to  the  demands  of  an  educated  people.  Let  us 
remember  that  in  the  training  of  the  child  for  good  citizenship  one 
ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  ten  thousand  tons  of  cure. 

PROF.  H.  J.  MESSENGER  : 

I  find  much  to  praise  and  little  to  criticise  in  the  lecture.  If  we 
notice  the  development  of  the  public-school  system  we  shall  see  how  it 
has  fallen  into  certain  ruts  of  mechanical  method.  Public  schools  were 
originally  introduced  as  local  institutions  throughout  the  country.  It 
was  soon  seen  that  there  must  be  some  system  in  their  management. 
The  result  was  that  each  State  took  hold  and  organized  a  splendid  sys- 
tem ;  but,  having  a  very  definite  form,  it  soon  got  into  a  rut.  How- 
ever, reform  will  surely  come ,  but  differing  from  the  last  speaker,  I 
think  it  will  come  from  the  top,  down.  Of  late  years  we  have  seen 
how  the  one-course  system  has  been  superseded  by  the  elective  system  in 
our  colleges,  and  how  the  new  method  has  been  gradually  working 
down  from  post-graduate  courses  to  senior,  and  in  some  universities 
to  sophomore  and  freshman  classes.  Eventually  it  will  reach  the  pre- 


430  Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship. 

paratory  schools ;  it  has  already  done  so  to  some  extent.  We  are  realiz- 
ing the  fact  that  only  a  small  percentage  of  the  pupils  of  the  public 
schools  can  go  to  college,  and  for  those  who  do  not,  a  different  course 
of  study  is  needed. 

In  considering  education  as  related  to  citizenship,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  there  are  a  great  many  kinds  of  education.  We  do  not  need 
an  education  which  makes  one  an  authority  on  pronunciation,  or  enables 
him  to  speak  French  and  play  his  part  among  the  four  hundred ;  but 
we  do  need  that  which  makes  one  a  student  of  Nature  and  of  Nature's 
ways ;  a  student  of  history,  able  to  grasp  the  political  questions  of  the 
time  and  to  note  the  results  of  their  past  treatment.  If  we  had  an 
educated  people  we  should  not  have  to  pass  through  the  greenback 
craze  or  a  free-silver  agitation.  If  man  had  such  an  education  he 
would  realize  the  fact  that  all  change  is  gradual ;  that  all  efforts  at 
improvement  are  not  lost,  even  if  the  world  is  not  reformed  in  two 
weeks ;  that  everything  is  neither  all  wrong  nor  all  right.  No  act  of 
your  life  is  productive  wholly  of  good  or  evil ;  all  is  relative.  When 
we  realize  this  we  shall  not  have  such  intense  partisan  spirit.  If 
patriotism  means  love  of  country,  we  can  not  have  too  much  of  it. 
But  Goldwin  Smith  says  :  "  Above  all  nations  is  humanity."  We  must 
realize  the  fact  that  there  are  other  nations  besides  America.  While 
America  is  a  good  country,  the  violent  patriotism  of  a  certain  class  of 
newspapers  can  be  overdone.  Education  tends  to  tone  down  that 
form  of  patriotism  in  a  beneficent  manner. 

DR.  LEWIS  G.  JANES  : 

In  regard  to  the  question  of  socialism  involved  in  public  education 
and  discussed  to-night  in  some  of  its  other  relations,  I  think  no 
evolutionist  can  fail  to  see  that  the  true  line  of  societary  progress  is 
toward  the  freeing  of  the  individual  from  governmental  control ;  but 
we  can  not  make  a  sudden  leap  to  complete  freedom.  On  the  way  it 
may  be  necessary  to  take  some  steps  that  seem  to  tend  toward 
socialism.  The  public  school  is  such  a  step.  In  other  matters,  how- 
ever, our  methods  are  really  not  as  socialistic  as  they  appear.  In  the 
matter  of  street-cleaning,  e.  g.,  the  usual  method  is  to  let  out  the 
contract  to  private  parties.  This  is  correct — strictly  in  line  with  Mr. 
Spencer's  conception  of  justice.  It  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the  local 
government  to  see  that  this  work  is  properly  done.  No  one  affirms 
this  class  of  rights  more  thoroughly  than  Mr.  Spencer ;  and  if  the  sys- 
tem of  giving  contracts,  for  this  and  other  work,  has  become  an  affair 
of  political  favoritism  and  private  monopoly,  it  may  be  necessary  for 
the  community  to  take  the  business  into  its  own  hands  for  a  while. 
This  is  not  necessarily  a  step  toward  State  socialism.  Our  Post-Office 


Education  as  Related  to  Citizenship.  431 

Department  is  not  socialistic  in  the  details  of  its  management ;  in  the 
carrying  of  the  mails,  the  work  is  let  out  to  private  individuals  or 
corporations  under  free  competition.  I  should  deprecate  any  real 
steps  toward  State  socialism  or  Bellamy  ism. 

MR.  CHADWICK  : 

It  is  too  late  for  any  reply.  I  will  merely  express  my  gratitude  for 
the  criticisms  on  my  address  and  for  the  expansions  and  illustrations 
of  my  thoughts,  and  close  with  the  words  of  that  great  teacher,  Dr. 
Arnold,  of  Rugby  :  "  The  measure  of  my  loyalty  to  any  institution  is 
my  desire  to  reform  it." 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 


BY 

EDWARD  M.  SHEPARD 

AUTHOR  OF  LIFE  OF  MARTIN  VAN  BUREN  :    THE  COMPETITIVE  TEST  ; 
THE  WORK  OF  A  SOCIAL  TEACHER,   ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

The  Federalist ;  Brown  and  Strauss's  Dictionary  of  American  Poli- 
tics; Patton's  The  Democratic  Party;  Cooper  and  Fenton's  American 
Politics ;  Houghton's  Conspectus  of  the  History  of  Political  Parties 
and  the  Federal  Government ;  Johnston's  History  of  American  Poli- 
tics ;  Stan  wood's  History  of  Presidential  Elections ;  Von  Hoist's  Con- 
stitutional and  Political  History  of  the  United  States ;  Sterne's  Con- 
stitutional History  and  Political  Development  of  the  United  States ; 
Works  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Calhoun;  Messages  of  President 
Grover  Cleveland. 


THE   DEMOCRATIC   PARTY. 

BY  EDWARD  M.  SHEPARD. 

You  will  perhaps  remember  in  Thackeray's  Paris  Sketch 
Book  the  two  pen-and-ink  figures  of  the  French  monarch 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  in  whose  reign 
of  seventy  years  French  civilization  took  on  its  modern 
form.  In  the  first  sketch  we  have  Louis  the  Great  in  robes 
of  ermine  and  purple,  his  brow  surmounted  by  a  superb 
and  well-nigh  impossible  head  of  hair,  his  shoulders  broad 
and  firm  for  cares  of  sovereignty,  and  his  hand  grasping 
a  scepter ;  altogether  it  is  a  splendid  figure  of  conscious 
power.  In  the  second  view  the  monarch,  having  retired 
from  the  public  gaze  to  his  chamber,  has,  much  to  his  com- 
fort, been  reduced  to  the  reality  of  his  own  manhood.  The 
heavy  vestments  have  been  thrown  off ;  no  wig  conceals  the 
royal  baldness ;  the  shoulders  and  legs  are  no  longer  padded 
out  to  lines  of  beauty ;  the  paint  and  powder  are  gone,  so 
that  the  eyes  are  seen  to  be  sunken,  and  the  wrinkled  feat- 
ures of  old  age  are  plain.  In  this  bald,  feeble,  spindling 
creature  there  is,  however,  all  that  ever  there  was  of  genu- 
ine man  or  genuine  ruler,  all  that  had  been  so  successfully 
idealized  by  the  disguise  and  harness  of  the  first  sketch. 
There  we  had  the  king  of  tradition,  of  popular  imagination, 
ruling  his  people  from  an  Olympian  height  of  unspeakable 
wisdom  and  sacred  power.  Here  is  the  king  of  reality,  a 
feeble  man,  selfish,  narrow,  short-sighted. 

Government  was  once  identical  with  kingship.  Modern 
government  has  inherited  many — more,  indeed,  than  we 
sometimes  think — of  the  features  and  illusions  of  kingship. 
The  imposing  and  mysterious  entity  called  government  may, 
even  in  our  own  land  and  time,  be  subjected,  with  advan- 
tage, to  the  sort  of  disenchantment  represented  in  the  cari- 
catures. The  primary  and  all-including  article  in  the  creed 
of  the  Democratic  party,  when  at  its  best,  has  been  its  disbe- 
lief that  government  has  any  virtue  or  wisdom  apart  from  the 
virtue  and  wisdom  of  the  men  who  compose  it.  Democrats 
have  been  hostile  to  the  glamour  of  ceremony,  to  the  tradi- 
tions and  mystery  which  have  magnified  the  attributes  and 
abilities  of  the  many  particular  men  who  administer  govern- 


436  The  Democratic  Party. 

ment  into  a  single  and  half-divine  personality  with  which  it 
is  irreverent  to  deal  on  terms  of  practical  and  immediate 
criticism.  Democrats  have  always  condemned  as  supersti- 
tious the  ascription  to  government  of  hidden  and  indefin- 
able sources  of  inspiration  incapable  of  analysis  into  specific 
human  elements. 

If  government,  however,  ought  to  be  dealt  with  merely  as 
an  assemblage  of  men  for  specific  and  practical  purposes, 
then  surely  it  will  not  be  reasonable,  at  least  of  a  Sunday 
evening  and  in  a  place  of  worship,  to  otherwise  treat  a 
political  party.  Doubtless  it  is  convenient  for  campaign 
orators  to  speak  of  the  Democratic  party  as  a  person  of  one 
identical  character,  developed  steadily  through  a  career 
which,  according  to  the  observer,  has  been  one  of  glory  or 
of  shame, — a  person  of  uniform  instincts,  of  fixed  habits,  of 
steadfast  ambition.  In  the  exigencies  of  an  election,  appeals 
to  party  traditions  and  the  cries  of  clanship  under  a  great 
leader  are  obviously  useful.  It  then  seems  almost  necessary 
to  appeal  to  that  enthusiasm  and  loyalty  which  go  out 
only  to  a  person  or  single  figure.  Politicians,  the  best  and 
the  worst  of  them,  will  alike  and  always  speak  of  their  party 
as  if  it  were  a  St.  George  of  perennial  nobleness  and  valor 
engaged  in  immortal  and  steady  combat  with  the  dragon. 
You  will  recall  the  genuine,  even  if  fleeting,  enthusiasm 
aroused  in  Brooklyn  a  few  years  ago  when  a  man  of  distin- 
guished station  simply  said  to  a  crowd  in  the  Academy  of 
Music:  "I  am  a  Democrat."  What  the  phrase  properly 
meant  it  might  take  a  volume  to  say.  To  few,  indeed,  of 
those  who  heard  it  did  the  words  bring  any  philosophical  or 
historical  view  of  American  government,  or  indeed  any 
living  or  immediate  belief,  except,  perhaps,  the  belief  that 
the  speaker  would,  if  he  were  in  the  place  of  another  distin- 
guished citizen,  distribute  offices  more  rapidly  than  they  were 
then  being  distributed  among  the  members  of  his  party.  I 
do  not  believe,  however,  that  the  latter  and  grosser  motive 
was  the  controlling  one  with  the  people  who  cheered.  The 
enthusiasm  largely  signified  personal  devotion  to  a  concrete 
image,  the  American  Democracy,  a  goddess  always  watching 
over  her  worshipers,  always  beneficent,  always  the  same. 

I  shall  not  for  a  moment  this  evening,  even  if  I  could,  ideal- 
ize the  Democratic  party  as  an  unchanging  personification 
of  political  virtues.  Nor  do  I  think  that  its  treatment  two 
weeks  from  this  evening  as  a  changeless  personification  of 
political  vices  would  be  either  true  or  useful.  It  is  the 


The  Democratic  Party.  437 

only  American  party  which  has  had  a  continuous  life  from 
the  time  of  Washington's  administration  to  the  present. 
But  it  has  never  been  anything  else  than  an  aggregation  of 
men  shifting  and  changing,  with  motives  and  views  like- 
wise shifting  and  changing,  sometimes  loyal,  sometimes 
most  disloyal,  to  the  original  impulse  of  the  party ;  some- 
times ruled  by  sound  and  far-seeing  patriotism,  sometimes 
half  inspired  with  a  real  love  of  mankind,  but  sometimes 
also  ruled  by  grosser  motives  and  headed  by  selfish,  timid, 
and  even  corrupt  leaders.  In  its  career  the  Democratic 
party  had  often  been  most  useful  to  the  American  Common- 
wealth, and  sometimes,  I  believe,  profoundly  and  enduringly 
useful  to  the  world.  More  than  once,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
has  stood  offensively  and  dangerously  in  the  way  of  the 
public  good ;  more  than  once  it  has  surrendered  itself  to 
impulses  contemptible  and  base. 

It  is  just  about  one  hundred  years  ago  that  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  the  United  States — and  by  that  I  mean  the 
present  organization — was  born  of  the  theoretical  and  philo- 
sophical temper  which  pervaded  Europe  and  America  in  the 
later  years  of  the  last  century,  and  the  practical  fruit  of 
which  had  been  the  destruction  of  monarchical  institutions 
in  America  and  France.  Instead  of  dealing,  as  typical  An- 
glo-Saxons would  have  dealt,  as  probably  Hamilton  and  John 
Adams  would  have  dealt,  only  with  the  particular  wrongs  and 
inconveniences  of  British  oppression,  the  genius  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  had,  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  fifteen  or 
twenty  years  before,  made  the  thirteen  colonies  define  the 
whole  reason  and  framework  of  government.  Much  of  what 
he  said  now  seems  truism.  It  was  the  supreme  merit  of  his 
career  that  he  turned  truths  into  truisms.  He  declared  the 
theoretical  rights — what  he  called  the  "  inalienable  rights  " — 
of  man ;  he  declared  the  justification  of  government  to  be 
its  ability  to  secure  those  rights;  he  declared  respect  or 
obedience  to  be  due  government  solely  as  in  actual  practice 
it  secured  those  rights.  Whenever  government  ceased  to 
perform  this  practical  work,  it  was  only  prudence  and  never 
awe  which  should  restrain  citizens,  if  they  were  to  be  re- 
strained at  all,  from  overturning  it.  Divinity  was  no  longer 
to  hedge  it  around.  King  George  was,  by  the  precise  speci- 
fications of  the  Declaration,  stripped  of  his  majesty,  as  in 
the  caricature  of  Louis  XIV,  and  dealt  with  as  a  man  who, 
vested  with  physical  powers,  had  done  the  colonists  certain 
concrete  wrongs. 


438  The  Democratic  Party. 

Very  soon  after  the  end  of  the  American  Eevolution  Jef- 
ferson went  to  Paris,  where  he  lived  during  several  years 
of  the  intellectual  ferment  which  preceded  the  cataclysm  of 
the  French  Kevolution.  After  our  Constitution  was  formed 
and  Washington's  administration  was  well  under  way,  Jef- 
ferson, returning  home,  was  still,  or  perhaps  more  zealously, 
an  apostle  of  the  rights  of  man — a  thorough-going  icono- 
clast toward  every  image  of  government  as  an  earthly  deity. 
To  his  influence  we  probably  owe  the  first  ten  amendments 
of  the  Federal  Constitution — that  bill  of  rights  which  has 
been  so  largely  copied  into  the  constitutions  of  the  Ameri- 
can States.  They  form  a  series  of  declarations  of  jealousy 
of  government,  or  rather  of  the  bodies  of  men  who  from 
time  to  time  compose  government.  Their  meaning  is  that 
the  price  of  liberty  is  eternal  vigilance  toward  rulers — not 
less  toward  rulers  elected  by  the  people  than  toward  those 
set  over  the  people  by  the  once  useful  but  now  absurd  sys- 
tem of  primogeniture.  While  he  was  the  nominal  head  of 
Washington's  cabinet,  Jefferson  and  his  friends  viewed  with 
intense  dislike  the  effort  of  Hamilton  and  his  friends  to 
form  into  a  governing  class  the  citizens  who  had  property, 
the  citizens  who,  through  a  dangerous  slip,  were  called  the 
"  well-born,"  and  their  effort  to  lodge  in  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment the  chief  political  powers  of  every  State.  Hamil- 
ton, you  will  perhaps  remember,  had  proposed  life-tenure 
for  the  President  and  senators,  and  the  appointment  of 
governors  of  the  States  by  Federal  authority,  with  the  power 
to  every  governor  of  an  absolute  veto  upon  the  legislation 
of  his  State.  In  our  admiration  for  his  great  powers  and 
our  gratitude  for  his  splendid  services  in  setting  up  the 
framework  of  our  Government,  it  is  sometimes  forgotten 
that  the  Federal  Constitution  is  a  radically  different  thing 
from  what  Hamilton  would  have  had  it ;  that  but  little  of  it 
is  his  handiwork ;  that  it  represents  quite  as  much,  to  say 
the  least,  the  Democratic  view  as  the  Federalist  view  of 
American  politics.  In  private  Hamilton  declared  it  to  be  a 
"  frail  and  worthless  fabric."  Democracy — and  by  that  he 
meant  the  eager  jealous  participation  of  all  citizens  in  the 
Government,  as  well  those  whom  he  deemed  unimportant 
and  incompetent  as  those  who  held  responsible  places  in  the 
community  and  were  skilled  in  affairs — Democracy,  he  de- 
clared just  before  his  death,  to  be  a  "  virulent  poison." 

From  the  time  of  Jefferson's  return  to  America  and  his 
appointment  as  Secretary  of  State  in  1790  until  his  inau- 


The  Democratic  Party.  439 

gtiration  as  President  in  1801,  the  Democratic  party  was  in 
its  first  stoge ;  and  in  that  stage  it  tended  toward  extreme 
opposition  to  the  Hamiltonian  views.  In  the  formation  of 
lasting  popular  opinion,  in  permanently  molding  the  politi- 
cal instincts  and  institutions  of  America,  and  in  setting  up 
ideals  which  have  in  our  land  grown  stronger  and  stronger 
with  the  lapse  of  time,  the  genius  of  Jefferson  was,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  that  of  Franklin,  the  most  fruitful 
which  our  country  has  known.  Within  twelve  years  after 
our  present  Government  began  he  had  gathered  a  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States  into  an  organization  then 
called  the  Eepublican,  afterward  called  the  Democratic-Re- 
publican, and  finally,  and  until  the  present  time,  called  the 
Democratic  party.  During  that  period  the  principles  of 
the  party  were  well  settled.  They  appear  in  Jefferson's  po- 
litical papers,  in  his  incessant  correspondence,  in  the  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky  resolutions,  for  both  of  which,  doubt- 
less, Jefferson  and  Madison  were  largely  responsible,  and  in 
a  great  wealth  of  political  and  party  literature  more  or  less 
doctrinaire. 

The  Democratic  principles  were  in  substance  these :  First, 
Just  government  is  a  mere  instrument  for  accomplishing 
certain  useful  and  practical  purposes  which  citizens  in  their 
other  relations  can  not  accomplish,  and  primarily,  and  chiefly, 
to  protect  men,  as,  without  trespass  upon  others,  they  pursue 
happiness  in  their  own  way.  Every  effort,  by  ceremonial  or 
otherwise,  to  ascribe  to  government  virtue  or  intelligence, 
or  invite  to  it  honor,  not  belonging  to  the  men  who  com- 

Eose  it,  is  an  effort  against  the  public  welfare.  Second,  The 
iss  government  does,  the  more  it  leaves  to  individual  citi- 
zens to  do,  the  better.  Every  grant  of  power  to  govern- 
ment ought,  therefore,  to  be  strictly  and  jealously  construed 
as  impairing  to  some  extent  the  natural  rights  of  men. 
Third)  There  should  be  the  maximum  of  local  self-govern- 
ment. Where  it  is  doubtful  between  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment and  a  State,  or  between  a  State  and  a  lesser  commu- 
nity, which  should  exercise  a  power,  the  doubt  ought  to  be 
solved  in  favor  of  the  government  nearer  the  home,  and 
more  closely  under  the  eye,  of  the  individual  citizen. 
Fourth,  It  follows  that  the  expenditure  of  money  by  the 
Government  ought  to  be  the  least  possible ;  the  collection 
and  disbursement  by  public  officials  of  money  earned  by 
other  men  tends  to  corruption,  not  only  in  the  jobbery  and 
thievery  more  or  less  attending  irresponsible  expenditure  of 


440  The  Democratic  Party. 

money,  but  perhaps  more  seriously  in  its  tendency  to  create 
in  the  minds  of  citizens  a  sense  of  dependence  upon  govern- 
ment. And  fifth,  to  sum  up  all  the  rest,  the  Government 
should  make  the  least  possible  demand  upon  the  citizen,  and 
the  citizen  the  least  possible  demand  upon  the  Government. 
The  citizen  should  never  suppose  that  he  can  be  made  vir- 
tuous or  kept  virtuous  by  law,  or  that  he  ought  to  be  helped 
to  wealth  or  ease  by  those  of  his  fellows  who  happen  to  hold 
the  offices,  and  for  that  reason  to  be  collectively  called  "  the 
Government." 

Such  was  the  Democratic  creed  at  its  beginning ;  and,  in 
spite  of  many  disloyalties  of  the  party,  such  the  creed,  at 
least  as  a  creed,  has  remained  until  the  present  time.  Cer- 
tain constructive  functions,  like  the  post-office  in  the  Fed- 
eral administration,  or  the  care  of  streets  in  municipal  ad- 
ministration, it  is  admitted — it  was  then  admitted — must  be 
performed  by  the  Government.  Those  constructive  func- 
tions, with  the  increase  in  wealth  and  complexity  of  modern 
life,  tend  to  increase  in  number  and  importance.  But,  as 
to  each  one  of  them,  the  burden  is  upon  those  who  would 
have  the  Government  assume  it,  to  show  that  Government 
is  fit  for  it ;  and  by  Government  is  always  meant  the  men 
actually  making  up  the  administration,  with  all  the  limita- 
tions upon  their  intelligence  and  integrity,  and  with  all  the 
disadvantages  incident  to  the  performance  of  business  by 
those  who  bear  but  an  insignificant  part  of  its  burdens.  It 
is  with  ample  regard  to  these  considerations  that  we  should 
determine  as  to  each  constructive  work,  whether  it  ought  to 
be  done  by  some  division  of  the  Government.  The  main 
purpose  and  justification  of  government  is,  in  every  re- 
sponse of  the  Democratic  litany,  and  with  ceaseless  itera- 
tion, declared  to  be  the  protection  of  the  individual  citizen 
in  best  and  most  freely  exercising  his  calling  and  in  living 
his  life  without  trespass  upon  the  like  freedom  of  his  neigh- 
bor. Long  before  the  birth  of  Herbert  Spencer — for  whose 
figure,  with  an  aureole  about  the  head,  one  half  looks  in  the 
meeting-house  of  this  association — the  best  of  the  proposi- 
tions of  Social  Statics  was  an  axiom  of  the  Democratic  party. 
The  creed  is  neither  warm  nor  inspiring.  It  seems  to  be 
selfish,  and  in  some  essentials  it  is  selfish.  It  says :  "  Let 
each  man  take  care  of  himself.  Let  no  man,  through  the 
power  of  popular  majorities,  shift  his  burdens  upon  other 
men." 

Out  of  the  triumph  of  this  creed,  which  the  first  year  of 


TJie  Democratic  Party.  441 

our  century  brought,  and  incidental  to  that  triumph,  have 
come  many  things  unpleasant  to  well-ordered  citizens.  The 
refusal  to  recognize  public  men  as  a  class  possessing  esoteric 
knowledge,  the  admiration  for  the  plain,  simple  man,  has  not 
infrequently  led  the  American  people  to  put  incompetence 
and  stupidity  into  official  place.  The  dislike  of  forms,  the 
determination  to  deal  with  realities,  has  sometimes  led  to 
the  neglect  of  forms  necessary  to  thoroughness,  precision, 
and  convenience.  In  a  conversation  which  I  was  honored 
in  having  with  James  Russell  Lowell  while  he  was  Minister 
to  England  he  touched  upon  this  subject,  as,  indeed,  he 
did  in  several  of  his  political  essays.  He  told  me  of  a  re- 
quest which  had  been  made  to-  him  by  a  foreign  govern- 
ment— I  think  that  of  Spain,  where  he  had  lately  been  Min- 
ister— for  information  accessible  only  in  one  of  the  depart- 
ments of  the  American  Government.  He  described  the 
respectful  care  and  thoroughness  of  the  form  in  which  the 
request  for  information  had  come  to  him,  and  had  by  him 
been  sent  to  America ;  and  then  he  spoke  sharply  of  the 
flimsy  and  careless,  and  even  slovenly,  papers  which  had 
come  to  him  in  return  for  submission  to  the  foreign  govern- 
ment— papers  which  must  create  disgust  in  any  well-ordered 
and  disciplined  mind.  I  said  to  myself,  and  I  have  a  half 
impression  that  I  said  to  Mr.  Lowell :  "  Here  are  fruits  of 
Thomas  Jefferson."  Not  that  Jefferson  would  ever  himself 
have  so  transacted  business,  or  perhaps  tolerated  such  trans- 
action of  business  in  others.  On  the  contrary,  his  work  of 
this  sort  was  thorough  and  admirable.  But  in  the  Ameri- 
can mind  and  habits  of  thought  Jefferson  and  his  school 
have  implanted  so  deeply  the  idea  that  forms  are  of  second- 
ary consequence,  and  the  conditions  of  our  country  have 
been  so  favorable  to  the  growth  of  the  idea,  that  not  infre- 
quently the  usefulness,  or  even  the  necessity,  of  forms  is 
overlooked.  It  is  quite  possible  that  a  dirty,  shabby,  half- 
legible  document  may  serve  the  main  purposes  of  the  thing 
to  be  done ;  and  doubtless  the  substance  of  the  document  is 
of  vastly  more  consequence  than  its  form.  Form  must  not 
control  or  stifle  the  substance,  as  in  some  of  the  business  of 
Spanish- American  countries,  or  in  the  circumlocution  offices 
of  years  ago  in  England.  But  Jefferson  knew,  although 
many  of  his  followers  have  forgotten,  that  where  form  itself 
is  not  properly  observed  there  is  grave  danger  that  the  sub- 
stance will  also  suffer  and  sometimes  will  be  lost.  When 
Jefferson  received  the  British  Minister,  Mr.  Merry,  it  was 


442  The  Democratic  Party. 

doubtless  well  that  burdensome  etiquette  should  not  prevent 
the  men  going  promptly  and  clearly  to  the  business  in  hand ; 
but  slippered  feet  and  shabby  dress,  if  the  story  of  Jefferson 
be  true,  did  not  help,  but  rather  hindered,  the  business. 
When  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  was  opened  eight  years  ago  we 
determined,  rightly  enough,  to  have  about  it  a  bit  of  pomp 
and  ceremony.  In  one  part  of  the  proceeding  the  President, 
the  Governor,  and  other  persons  of  distinction  walked  over 
the  footway  of  the  bridge.  In  a  European  country  this 
parade  would  have  been  orderly,  beautiful,  solemn.  Here, 
however,  one  saw  a  desultory,  straggling  body  of  citizens 
with  a  slatternly,  dirty  man  carrying  an  ugly  water  pail  and 
a  tin  dipper  not  far  from  the  President  of  the  United  States 
— the  whole  of  the  affair  without  that  reasonable  dignity  of 
official  appearance  which  ought  to  belong  to  a  public  cere- 
mony. I  again  said  to  myself,  as  I  saw  it :  "  Jefferson,  here 
again  are  your  works."  American  sentiment  has  in  large 
measure  forbidden  garbs  to  various  public  professions  and 
ceremony  to  public  affairs ;  and  I  thoroughly  believe  the 
reason  of  the  prohibition  to  be  sound  and  fruitful  of  good. 
The  public  watchfulness  and  conscience  are  not  to  be  di- 
verted from  the  essential  thing  which  is  done  by  any  splen- 
dor or  beauty  of  form  or  procedure. 

Wholesome  as  is  this  greater  simplicity  to  which  we  have 
been  coming,  it  has  been  reached  at  the  cost  of  submit- 
ting to  much  that  is  mean  and  even  repulsive  in  appear- 
ance. Why  could  we  not  dismiss  the  cumbersome  vanities 
of  useless  etiquette,  the  affectation  of  mystery  in  the  trans- 
action of  affairs,  public  or  private,  without  dismissing  also 
the  proprieties  and  without  wounding  the  sense  of  the  beau- 
tiful ?  The  Graces  and  the  Muses,  no  less  now  than  in  the 
classic  days,  or  in  Italy  of  the  Renaissance,  deserve  shrines 
in  the  temples  of  Republicanism.  But  this  is  digression. 
Whatever  were,  whatever  still  are,  the  blemishes  of  its  fruits, 
such  was  the  Democratic  creed  when  Jefferson  entered  the 
White  House.  From  1801  until  1825  the  Democratic  party 
was  in  control  of  the  machinery  of  government.  At  the 
end  of  that  time  there  was  no  opposition.  When  the  presi- 
dential election  of  1824  took  place  each  candidate  was  de- 
clared by  his  supporters  to  be  the  best  Republican  of  them 
all.  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Henry  Clay,  quite  as  much 
as  Andrew  Jackson  and  William  H.  Crawford,  were  sup- 
posed to  be  followers  of  Jefferson  and  Madison.  So  utterly 
destroyed  was  the  Federal  party  that  its  traditions  have  since 


The  Democratic  Party.  443 

that  time  played  no  practical  part  in  the  development  of 
the  United  States.  The  career,  for  instance,  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  quite  as  far  away  from  Federalist  ideals  as  the 
career  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Both  careers  were  made  possi- 
ble by  the  surrender  of  the  land  to  the  political  ideas  of  the 
philosophers  who  were  our  Presidents  during  the  first  six- 
teen years  of  the  century.  Not,  however,  that  all  the  Demo- 
crats were  mere  theorists.  There  were  among  the  Demo- 
cratic statesmen  of  the  time  several  able  administrators. 
Gallatin,  for  instance,  was  one  of  the  greatest  executives  our 
country  has  known.  The  Clintons,  and,  among  the  younger 
men,  Van  Buren,  were  highly  competent  in  the  efficient 
transaction  of  the  business  of  government.  Never  have 
our  national  finances  been  better  cared  for.  Still,  on  the 
whole,  the  first  twenty  years  of  Democratic  administration 
were  not  conspicuous  for  executive  efficiency.  Jefferson 
was  a  poor  administrator.  Madison  was  not  a  great  one. 
And  although  Monroe,  the  least  able  of  the  three  men,  was 
in  this  respect  superior  to  the  other  two,  his  executive  talents 
were  quite  inferior  to  those  of  his  successor. 

When  John  Quincy  Adams  became  President  he  deter- 
mined, although  without  recurrence  to  the  ceremonial 
features  of  Federalism,  to  make  the  Washington  Govern- 
ment a  firmer,  abler  institution,  to  start  it  in  the  way  of  con- 
structive work,  to  make  it  open  the  great  highways  through 
the  country,  to  make  it  influential  abroad.  Joined,  as 
Adams  was,  by  the  attractive  abilities  and  character  of 
Henry  Clay,  the  Whig  party  was  formed  during  this  admin- 
istration ;  and  from  the  election  of  1828,  in  which  Adams 
was  defeated  for  re-election,  until  1844,  the  Democratic 
theories  of  government  were  ably  and  patriotically  attacked 
by  some  of  the  most  famous  Americans.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing speculation  to  imagine  what  the  present  condition  of 
our  country  would  have  been  if  the  Whigs  had  succeeded 
in  establishing  as  the  policy  of  government  the  construc- 
tion of  the  thoroughfares  between  the  States  ;  that  is  to  say, 
if  the  Federal  Government  had  taken  upon  itself  the  con- 
struction of  the  great  railways  of  the  land.  Under  Jack- 
son and  Van  Buren  the  Democratic  party  dissolved  the 
close  alliance  between  the  Federal  Government  and  the 
banks.  The  Federal  Government  was  not,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, to  loan  money  to  its  citizens,  for  that  was  the  propo- 
sition substantially  maintained  by  the  Whigs  in  the  bank 
controversy.  Since  then  Government  has  indeed  deposited 


444  The  Democratic  Party. 

moneys  with  banks,  but  only  as  a  mere  convenience,  and 
never  under  a  general  policy  of  helping  bankers  or  mer- 
chants. Under  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  the  Democratic  party 
at  last  showed  genuine  energy  and  ability  of  the  first  order  in 
the  executive  administration  of  affairs.  The  United  States  has 
never  known  more  forcible  administrations  than  theirs.  But 
in  the  debasing  use  of  official  patronage  the  party  then  exhib- 
ited, to  an  odious  degree,  the  disloyalty,  which  had  permeated 
the  whole  body  of  the  American  people,  to  one  of  the  cardinal 
principles  of  Democracy.  That  the  business  offices  of  Gov- 
ernment were  mere  implements  for  the  transaction  of  the 
business  of  the  people,  and  not  partisan  prizes  or  private 
possessions,  as  then  they  still  were  in  aristocratic  and  corrupt 
England,  had  been  the  firm  conviction  of  Jefferson  as  of 
other  earlier  American  statesmen.  For  his  honorable  per- 
sistence in  this  respect  John  Quincy  Adams  deserves  our 
lasting  gratitude,  as  the  Democratic  party  of  his  day  deserves 
a  severe  condemnation. 

From  1800  to  1844  the  Democratic  party,  being  almost 
continually  in  possession  of  the  Government,  had  almost  lost 
sight  of,  or  grown  lukewarm  toward,  its  Kentucky  and 
Virginia  resolutions  and  its  State  Eights  predilections.  It 
was  a  thoroughly  Union  party ;  it  was  the  Union  party. 
The  disunionists  were  for  some  years  chiefly  New  England 
Federalists.  In  1833  there  was  the  later  outbreak  of  dis- 
union in  South  Carolina  under  Calhoun  and  other  seceders 
from  the  Democratic  party,  in  suppressing  which  the  Demo- 
cratic administration  used  emphatic  language  of  intense  and 
peremptory  devotion  to  the  Union  which  would  not  have 
ill-fitted  an  original  Federalist.  Indeed,  if  one  will  apply 
to  politics  the  elementary  rules  of  human  conduct,  he  will 
perceive  it  to  be  no  very  wonderful  thing  that  the  party  in 
possession  of  the  Federal  administration  is  always  a  Union 
party,  or  that  disunionists  are  always  men  out  of  the  control 
of  the  central  administration. 

In  Van  Buren's  presidency  occurred  the  memorable  finan- 
cial crisis  of  1837  and  1838 ;  and  his  resolute  and  unpopular 
application  of  the  principle  that  citizens  in  pecuniary  trouble 
must  not  look  to  the  Federal  Government  for  loans  of  credit 
or  other  help,  but  must  work  out  their  own  salvation,  was 
one  of  the  finest  exhibitions  of  patriotic  and  far-seeing  wis- 
dom known  to  American  history.  In  my  opinion,  the 
Democratic  party  did  not  again  reach  an  equal  height  until 
December,  1887. 


The  Democratic  Party.  445 

About  1844  the  slavery  question  definitely  entered  party 
politics.  Slavery  existed  only  in  the  Southern  States ;  and 
in  those  agricultural  communities  the  Democratic  party, 
standing  for  low  duties  on  imports,  had  come  to  be  strongest. 
Its  strength  there  was,  however,  quite  unrelated  to  its  opin- 
ions on  the  slavery  question.  But  later,  under  the  threats  of 
interference  with  slavery  in  the  States,  the  slave-owners  more 
and  more  drifted  to  the  Democratic  party  because  of  its  strict 
doctrine  of  non-interference  with  the  domestic  affairs  of  the 
States.  And  when  the  slave-owners  wished,  as  they  soon 
after  did,  not  only  to  protect  the  institution  in  the  States, 
but  to  compel  the  rest  of  the  Union  to  accept  its  atrocities, 
they  carried  the  Democratic  party  far  away  from  its  creed. 

Among  the  Democrats  there  was — there  had  always  been 
— a  large  antislavery  feeling,  Jefferson  had  been  almost  an 
abolitionist ;  out  of  the  Democratic  party  there  later  came  to 
the  Republican  party  many  abolitionists,  among  whom  you 
will  at  once  recall  John  P.  Hale,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  David 
Wilmot  and  William  Cullen  Bryant.  The  Southern  Demo- 
crats, after  a  struggle,  captured  the  organization  of  their 
party,  and  refused  Van  Buren  the  nomination  of  1844  be- 
cause he  was  opposed  to  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  to  the 
extension  of  slavery  which  it  meant.  From  that  time  until 
the  election  of  Lincoln  the  Democratic  party  was  ruled  by 
the  slave-holders  of  the  South.  It  was  still  a  Union  party ; 
in  one  sense  its  unionism  was  too  strong.  It  so  far  believed 
in  the  Union  that  it  was  willing  to  sacrifice  its  own  principles 
of  liberty  and  local  self-government  and  its  self-respect,  and 
to  agree  to  a  monstrous  iniquity  in  order  to  preserve  the 
Union.  Upon  a  monument  in  Greenwood  to  a  distinguished 
young  Democrat  who  died  during  that  time,  and  who,  though 
supporting  slavery,  or  rather  the  contentions  of  slave-holders, 
was  no  friend  to  slavery,  the  cherished  aim  of  his  political 
career  was  declared  to  be,  and  truly,  "the  union  of  the 
Democratic  party  for  the  sake  of  the  Union." 

The  motives  of  the  chief  Democratic  leaders  of  this  period 
I  believe  to  have  been  patriotic  to  a  high  degree.  Disunion 
seemed  to  them  to  be  the  greatest  of  evils ;  and  they  believed, 
and  rightly,  that  disunion  must  come,  unless  concession 
after  concession  should  be  made  to  the  slave-holding  South. 
The  Whig  party  was  no  better.  It  had  become  contempt- 
ible long  before  it  fell  to  pieces  on  the  rise  of  the  present 
Republican  party.  The  real  truth  and  the  soundest  and  most 
conservative  wisdom  was  that  of  the  antislavery  disunion 


446  The  Democratic  Party. 

men  of  the  day,  of  the  agitators  who  declared  that  if  the 
preservation  of  the  Union  meant  the  continuance  or  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery,  they  were  for  breaking  up  the  Union ; 
if  the  Constitution  stood  for  slavery,  then  it  was  a  covenant 
with  Hell.  When  Buchanan  became  President  the  timid 
and  anxious  unionism  of  the  Democratic  organization  had 
made  it  completely  disloyal  to  its  own  traditions  as  well  as  to 
the  cause  of  human  freedom.  Democrats  were  now  insane- 
ly extending  Federal  powers  for  the  sake  of  slavery ;  and 
however  real  their  love  of  the  Union,  it  blinded  them  to  the 
simple  elements  of  right  and  wrong.  The  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision, declaring  that  the  Federal  Constitution,  of  its  own 
force,  carried  slavery  into  all  the  territories,  out-federalized 
the  Federalists.  Bleeding  Kansas  told  the  story  of  the 
ruthless  destruction  of  local  rights  by  the  administration  of 
a  party  which  affected  to  be  the  special  guardian  of  local 
rights  and  of  human  freedom.  Van  Buren,  in  his  history 
of  political  parties,  quite  justly  rejoiced  to  point  out  that 
Buchanan  had  been  originally  a  Federalist  and  that  in  hia 
old  age  he  had  returned  to  Federalism;  that  Taney,  the 
Chief  Justice  who  had  pronounced  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
had  likewise  been  originally  a  Federalist  and  had  in  his  old 
age  returned  to  Federalism.  Those  days,  when  the  Demo- 
cratic party  was  Unionist,  and  nearly  Federalist,  were  the 
days  of  its  lowest  estate. 

The  present  Kepublican  party  was  founded  in  1854  upon 
the  proposition  that  there  should  be  no  further  extension  of 
slavery.  It  was  not  an  antislavery  party  so  far  as  concerned 
the  States  and  Territories  in  which  slavery  already  existed. 
Until  it  was  chosen  to  power,  it  was  not  a  Unionist  party. 
On  the  contrary,  its  leaders,  and  notably  Lincoln  and  Seward 
and  Chase,  before  the  presidential  election  of  1860,  rightly 
enough,  as  one  must  infer  from  their  speeches,  set  the 
"  higher  law  "  above  the  Union.  The  Democratic  party  be- 
ing at  last  and  ignominiously  turned  out  of  power  in  1861, 
all  the  Democrats  of  the  South  and  a  few  of  those  at  the 
North  became  disunionists.  The  Republican  party,  how- 
ever, immediately  upon  its  triumph  in  1860,  began  fearfully 
to  turn  from  the  higher  law ;  it  became  in  its  turn  a  Union 
party.  Its  leaders  (and  among  them  one  reads  the  names 
of  John  Sherman,  William  Windom,  and  Charles  Francis 
Adams)  voted  for  extreme  and,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say, 
shameful,  pro-slavery  measures,  designed  to  conciliate  the 
South. 


The  Democratic  Party.  447 

It  is  one  of  the  amazing  facts  of  our  political  history  that 
after  the  presidential  campaign  of  1860,  in  which  the  Re- 
publican party  urged  as  its  chief  claim  to  power  its  determi- 
nation that  slavery  should  be  excluded  from  the  Territories, 
the  Republican  party  helped  in  the  early  months  of  1861, 
even  Charles  Sumner  not  opposing,  to  pass  laws  bringing  in 
the  new  Territories  of  Colorado,  Nevada,  and  Dakota  without 
that  exclusion  of  slavery  for  which  alone  they  had  come  to 
power.  This  party  of  the  higher  law,  not  panoplied,  but 
weighted,  with  executive  power,  also  cringed  to  the  slave- 
holders for  the  sake  of  the  Union.  For  that  they  were 
ready  to  occupy  the  ignominious  position  which  the  Demo- 
crats had  occupied  from  1844  until  1860.  But  the  inso- 
lence of  the  slave  power  and  the  wisdom  of  the  masses  of 
the  North  saved  them.  There  came  the  attack  on  Fort 
Sumter,  and  the  Northern  sky  lightened  up.  The  aboli- 
tionists, the  truest  statesmen  of  the  time,  had  deeply  im- 
pressed the  morality  of  the  North.  The  people  rose  with  a 
splendid  efficiency,  and,  in  God's  providence,  the  day  for 
compromise  was  past.  Lincoln,  though  not  a  bold  leader, 
was  a  wise  man.  Though  he  would,  as  he  himself  very  ex- 
plicitly said,  let  his  black  fellow-men  remain  in  slavery  for 
the  sake  of  the  Union,  he  was  rejoiced  when,  to  the  North, 
Union  at  last  came  to  mean  abolition.  And  he  showed  in- 
comparable skill  in  dealing  with  this  sentiment,  now  lead- 
ing, now  following  it. 

During  the  war  and  the  days  of  reconstruction  the  Demo- 
cratic party  was  the  usual  party  in  opposition.  I  can  not 
pause  to  describe  its  career  from  its  defeat  in  1860  until 
the  revival  of  its  traditional  policy  in  1874.  I  must  say, 
however,  that  very  insufficient  justice  has  been  done  to  the 
patriotism  of  the  great  mass  of  Democrats  during  the  Civil 
War.  The  Union  could  never  have  been  restored  but  for 
their  general  and  effective  loyalty.  If  during  the  war  there 
had  been  no  constitutional  opposition  from  that  party,  if  in 
its  ranks  there  had  not  been  at  least  two  fifths  of  the  loyal 
people  of  the  North,  the  Union  would  have  been  restored 
shorn  of  some  of  its  chief  merits,  and  with  a  framework  very 
different  from  that  which  had  been  set  up  by  the  fathers,  and 
which  so  wonderfully  survived  the  flame  and  destruction  of 
our  great  struggle. 

In  1874  the  Democratic  party,  having  in  part  recovered 
from  the  demoralization  of  the  war  and  the  absurd  candi- 
dacy of  Mr.  Greeley,  was  taken  firmly  in  hand  by  Samuel  J. 


448  The  Democratic  Party. 

Tilden  and  his  coadjutors.  Though  not  in  every  respect  an 
inspiring  figure,  Gov.  Tilden  was  deeply  imbued  with  the 
traditional  principles  of  his  party.  He  had  been  an  admir- 
ing pupil  of  Van  Buren,  who  had  himself  been  a  disciple  of 
Jefferson.  He  had  joined  Van  Buren  in  the  Free-Soil 
revolt  of  1848  against  the  dictation  of  the  slave-holders. 
When  that  revolt  had  failed,  he  had  returned  to  the  party, 
and  there  stayed  during  the  unionist  period  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  which  I  have  described.  He  was  elected  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York  in  1874  upon  a  platform  whose  distinctly 
and  tersely  drawn  propositions  were  completely  Jeffersonian. 
The  Federal  Government  must  not  issue  fiat  paper ;  it  must 
not  promote  manufactures  or  any  kind  of  business  at  the 
expense  of  those  not  engaged  in  it ;  it  must  not  meddle  with 
the  affairs  of  the  several  States;  a  civil-service  law  must 
destroy  those  evils  of  patronage  which,  however  much  prac- 
ticed by  Democrats,  had  been  among  the  most  flagrant  vio- 
lations of  Democratic  principles.  With  Tilden's  success 
there  came  into  the  administration  of  the  Democratic  party 
a  body  of  younger  men,  of  superior  intelligence,  of  great 
sincerity,  and  warmly  devoted  to  the  traditions  of  the  party. 
Indeed,  their  devotion  was  one  of  the  most  honorable  and 
effective  tributes  paid  him.  After  the  electoral  controversy 
of  1877,  and  his  failure — through  a  scandalous  and  criminal 
perversion  of  the  popular  will — to  actually  reach  the  White 
House,  reaction  from  a  steadfast  course  set  in,  as  it  had 
more  than  once  before.  In  1880  the  Democratic  party, 
shrinking  from  its  own  principles  and  abandoning  its  own 
leader,  met  a  defeat  not  altogether  undeserved.  When  at 
last,  in  March,  1885,  it  secured  the  Presidency,  the  business 
and  practical  requirements  of  administration  of  a  great 
machine  of  Government  long  set  up  were  so  great,  and  the 
temper  of  Mr.  Cleveland  and  his  associates  was  rightly  so  prac- 
tical, that  considerable  time  elapsed  before  Democratic  theo- 
ries could  be  put  in  practice  or  even  very  distinctly  enunciated. 
In  a  series  of  veto  messages,  however,  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  administration,  and  especially  in  his  famous  tariff  mes- 
sages of  1887,  and  in  his  annual  message  of  1888,  after  his 
defeat,  there  was  clear  and  definite  return  to  the  traditional 
principles  of  the  Democratic  party.  He  enunciated,  in  a 
phrase  of  his  own,  the  sum  of  them  all  when  he  said  that  it 
was  for  the  citizen  to  support  the  Government,  and  not  for 
the  Government  to  support  the  citizen. 
I  feel  bound  not  to  deal  in  this  address  with  the  merits  of 


The  Democratic  Party.  449 

the  differences  between  the  parties  in  our  own  time.  But 
my  story  would  be  fragmentary  if  I  were  to  leave  unnoticed 
the  relation  of  the  questions  of  our  current  politics  to  the 
traditional  principles  of  the  Democratic  party.  Those  ques- 
tions seem  to  be  the  tariff,  silver  coinage,  pensions,  large 
expenditures  by  the  Federal  Government,  and  bounties  or 
subsidies  for  steamship  lines,  producers  of  raw  sugar,  and 
others.  At  least  these  are  the  questions  to  which  public 
opinion  seems  nowadays  to  require  that  party  platforms 
shall  make  references  more  or  less  sincere.  Apart  from  all 
theories  of  governmental  action,  I  am  perfectly  aware  that 
on  each  side  of  every  one  of  these  questions  much  of  a  prac- 
tical character  is  said  which  impresses  intelligent  and  prac- 
tical men.  But  to-night  I  can  do  no  more  than  point  out 
that  at  the  bottom  of  each  of  these  questions  is  the  old 
question  whether  the  Government  at  Washington  can  and 
ought,  by  its  affirmative  action,  to  help  a  portion  of  its  citi- 
zens to  greater  pecuniary  prosperity. 

Is  not  this  true  about  the  tariff  question  ?  Are  not  ways 
and  means  committees  asked  to  protect,  or  warned  not  to 
protect,  by  artificial  restrictions,  this  industry  or  that  indus- 
try from  a  foreign  competition  which  is  said  to  prevent  its 
making  money  which  it  would  otherwise  make  ?  Whenever 
the  passage  of  a  tariff  bill  at  Washington  is  politically  possi- 
ble, do  not  the  manufacturer  and  the  importer  apply  their 
energy  and  skill  and  the  resources  of  their  influence  to 
the  securing  of  supposed  help,  or  the  escape  from  supposed 
injury,  to  come  from  Washington?  The  citizen  engaged  in 
one  of  these  callings  is  compelled  to  believe  that,  as  a  con- 
dition of  success,  he  must,  to  his  own  industry  and  intelli- 
gence, and  the  free  exercise  of  his  own  faculties,  bring  other 
help.  He  must  secure  in  one  way  or  another  such  wisdom 
and  beneficence  as  may  come  from  Senator  Aldrich  of 
Rhode  Island,  Senator  Carlisle  of  Kentucky,  the  Hon. 
Bourke  Cockran  of  New  York,  and  others,  among  whom 
surely  is  neither  last  nor  least  the  Hon.  John  M.  Clancy, 
well  known  to  all  of  you  as  the  representative  at  Washing- 
ton of  the  district  in  which  we  live,  and  who  is,  must  we 
not  assume,  the  special  protector  of  our  varied  interests  and 
callings.  It  is  for  these  gentlemen  and  their  associates  to 
decide  which  of  the  thousand  industries  of  the  country  are 
to  be  promoted,  which  to  be  discouraged,  and  as  to  each  of 
them  to  what  extent.  There  may,  of  course,  be  economic 
or  social  reasons  for  a  protective  tariff  which  overcome  the 


450  The  Democratic  Party. 

difficulty  thus  suggested.  However  this  may  be,  the  tariff 
discussion  ultimately  involves  the  question  whether  one 
citizen  or  set  of  citizens  may  rightly  look  to  Congress  to 
compel  by  force  of  law  his  fellow-citizens  to  help  him,  or 
whether  he  shall  be  left,  with  such  reason,  foresight,  and 
industry  as  God  has  given  him,  to  help  himself.  There  are 
Democrats  who  are  protectionists.  There  are  Eepublicans 
who  are  free-traders.  But  the  Democrat  who  is  a  protec- 
tionist adheres  rather  to  the  form  or  organization  of  his 
party  than  to  its  essential  principle. 

The  great  parties  of  the  United  States  have  never  dif- 
fered as  to  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government  to  coin 
money.  So  that  the  mere  question  whether  or  not  silver 
shall  be  as  freely  coined  as  gold  does  not  involve  the  great 
difference  of  principle  between  the  two  parties.  But  we 
know  that  few  people  are  interested  in  the  abstract  question 
of  bimetallism  dealt  with  by  the  economists.  If  the  free 
coinage  of  silver  could  take  place  only  at  a  rate  which  would 
make,  a  silver  dollar  equal  to  the  existing  gold  dollar,  there 
would  be  no  agitation  for  free  silver.  The  reason  which 
influences  the  masses  of  people — outside  of  the  few  silver- 
producing  States,  who  demand  free  coinage — is  the  fact,  per- 
fectly realized,  that  the  silver  dollar  proposed  to  be  coined 
would  be  intrinsically  worth  far  less  than  a  gold  dollar,  and 
that,  when  coinage  becomes  free,  the  only  circulating  dollar 
would  be  a  silver  dollar  worth  far  less  than  the  present  dol- 
lar, a  dollar  to  be  obtained  for  far  less  labor — that  is  to  say, 
at  far  less  cost.  This  is  the  very  motive  which  underlay  the 
paper-money  mania  after  the  war,  in  whose  abatement  seven- 
teen years  ago  our  friend  here  to-night,  General  Woodford, 
did  in  Ohio,  but  for  the  whole  country,  so  fine  and  lasting  a 
service.  The  Government  at  Washington  seems  to  the  citi- 
zen who  does  not  observe  the  real  springs  of  power  to  be 
inimitably  powerful ;  it  can  by  law  create  a  dollar  of  one 
hundred  cents  out  of  a  bit  of  paper  or  out  of  seventy 
cents  worth  of  silver.  So  the  pressed  and  worried  planter 
in  the  South,  or  the  farmer  in  the  Mississippi  valley, 
does  not  greet  with  each  morning  the  sun  or  rain  of  heaven 
and  proceed  to  work  out  his  freedom  from  debt,  with 
the  fruitfulness  of  those  elements,  and  through  his  own 
efforts  and  frugality.  He  is  tempted  instead — by  the  illu- 
sion against  which  the  Democratic  party,  whenever  loyal 
to  its  own  principles,  will  firmly  protest — to  appeal  to  the 
mysterious  but  imaginary  deity  who  sits  enshrined  under 


The  Democratic  Party.  451 

the  dome  on  that  Capitoline  Hill  which  overlooks  the  Poto- 
mac. 

In  the  abuses  of  the  pension  system  I  believe  is  to  be 
found  the  most  widely  corrupting  of  these  interferences  or 
beneficences  of  the  Washington  Government.  I  do  not  for 
a  moment  mean  that  because  some  measure  of  corruption 
attends  the  exercise  of  this  or  any  other  governmental 
function,  for  that  reason  alone  the  function  itself  ought  not 
to  exist.  In  all  of  these  matters  we  are  to  deal  more  or  less 
empirically  with  the  net  result,  whether  of  good  or  evil.  To 
those  who  gave  or  risked  their  lives  in  defense  of  their  coun- 
try, their  country  surely  owes  a  lasting  debt.  Where  in 
such  patriotic  service  wounds  were  received  or  special  hard- 
ships borne,  or  permanent  injury  inflicted,  doubtless  the 
country  ought  not  to  measure  its  tribute  with  a  niggardly 
hand.  Here  again,  however,  it  is  neither  justice  nor  true 
generosity  to  relieve  any  man,  who  can  help  himself,  of  the 
necessity  of  doing  so.  It  seems  to  be  the  conclusion  of  the 
most  distinguished  and  patriotic  soldiers  themselves  that 
the  payment  of  pensions  has  passed  beyond  any  relation  to 
patriotic  service.  So  far  has  this  gone  that  the  proposition 
is  now  seriously  made  that  pensions  shall  be  paid  to  those 
who  ignominiously  deserted  from  the  service  of  their  coun- 
try. It  is,  I  believe,  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  the 
average  country  village  of  the  North  the  payment  of  a 
pension  is  in  large  manner  regarded  simply  as  a  largess 
paid  by  this  supreme  and  mysterious  power  at  Washing- 
ton to  the  man  or  woman  who  is  in  pecuniary  need,  and 
with  but  a  nominal  relation  to  any  service  ever  rendered 
the  country.  A  friend  of  mine  traveling  through  south- 
ern Illinois  tells  me  that  he  was  struck  by  the  large  num- 
ber of  idle,  shiftless  men  standing  at  the  railway  stations 
as  every  train  passed.  He  asked  the  general  manager  of 
the  road  for  an  explanation,  and  was  told  that  the  spec- 
tacle was  due  to  the  zeal  and  skill  of  the  local  congress- 
man— a  Democrat  in  politics,  I  think — in  procuring  pen- 
sions at  Washington.  In  every  village  of  his  district  there 
were  many  men  well  able  to  work  whose  lives  would  have 
been  far  more  wholesome  and  happy  if  they  had  been  at 
work,  but  who  were  receiving  pensions  sufficient  to  main- 
tain them  in  complete  and  corrupting  idleness.  The  trip 
mornings  and  evenings  to  see  the  trains  pass  was  their  only 
occupation.  In  every  such  village  one  will  see  carried  to 
its  extreme  the  idea  that  the  Government  is  to  support  the 


452  The  Democratic  Party. 

citizen  rather  than  that  the  citizen  is  to  support  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

The  same  principle  is  involved  in  the  advocacy  of  great 
expenditures  by  the  Government.  Very  many  patriotic 
citizens,  doubtless  intelligent  citizens,  see  something  fine  in 
the  expenditure  of  a  thousand  million  dollars  by  a  single 
Congress.  That  every  dollar  which  goes  to  Washington 
must  have  come  from  the  toil  and  economy  of  some  citizen 
— and  he  the  citizen  who,  because  he  is  industrious  and 
economical,  ought  to  be  the  first  care  of  the  Government 
— is  forgotten.  Or,  if  it  be  remembered,  the  patriotic  cit- 
izen who  applauds  congressional  liberality  has  in  mind 
the  famous  image  of  the  Government  as  a  beneficent  sun 
drawing  up  by  its  beams  from  the  earth  the  moisture  and 
vapor  in  order  to  return  it  in  fruitful  showers — the  idea 
of  a  paternal  government,  liberal  and  generous  to  its  chil- 
dren. 

Perhaps  a  more  striking  illustration  of  the  principle  in 
contemporaneous  politics  is  seen  in  bounties  or  subsidies. 
A  citizen  owns  a  steamship  line.  Under  the  Democratic 
theory  he  is  told  to  depend  upon  his  own  energy,  foresight, 
and  skill  for  the  success  of  his  venture.  If  a  steamship 
line  will  not  pay,  the  Democrats  say,  or  rather  ought  to  say, 
that  he  ought  not  to  run  it.  His  fellow-citizen  earning  a 
scanty  living  from  a  farm  in  Hamilton  County  is  no  more 
bound  to  contribute  to  the  expense  of  running  the  steam- 
ship line  than  the  steamship  owner  is  bound  to  bear  the  ex- 
pense of  the  guano  which  might  perhaps  bring  to  the  farmer 
a  living  out  of  his  unfertile  soil.  To  the  steamship  owner, 
however,  there  is  the  picture  of  an  overflowing  Treasury  at 
Washington,  and  of  his  personal  needs,  real  or  suppositi- 
tious, mingled  with  which  is  probably  a  vague,  general  no- 
tion of  the  benefits  which  his  countrymen  will  derive  from 
his  success  in  running  steamships.  So  now  we  have  begun 
the  system  of  giving  bounties  to  the  producers  of  commodi- 
ties. To  tap  the  trees  of  Vermont  and  give  us  each  spring 
our  maple  sugar,  to  raise  the  sugar-cane  in  Louisiana,  to  at- 
tempt to  raise  sorghum  in  Kansas — these  have  been  deemed 
by  the  law-makers  acts  of  such  peculiar  merit  that  the  citi- 
zen doing  them  should  be  permitted  to  lay  some  of  his  burden 
of  life  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  fellows.  Not,  however,  that  he  consciously  proposes  to 
make  the  lives  of  others  harder,  that  his  may  be  easier.  In 
his  mind  is  merely  the  figure  of  this  great  and  fruitful 


The  Democratic  Party.  453 

power  at  Washington,  which  will  help  him  instead  of  leav- 
ing him  to  help  himself. 

I  ought  perhaps  to  add  to  this  list  of  current  questions 
the  suppression,  real  or  supposed,  of  the  negro  vote  at  the 
South  by  fraud  or  violence.  The  division  in  the  Repub- 
lican  party,  whether  this  can  be  dealt  with  by  law,  leaves 
one  in  doubt  whether  this  be  really  a  question  of  current 
politics.  Assuming  it  to  be  so,  you  will  observe  that  here 
again  is  involved  one  of  the  principles  upon  which  the  Demo- 
cratic party  was  founded.  The  remedy  sought  is  the  in- 
terference of  the  Federal  Government  in  the  local  adminis- 
tration of  the  State.  Such  interference  is  perhaps  some- 
times necessary ;  and  so  are  revolutions  sometimes  neces- 
sary. But  even  when  necessary,  such  interference  is,  in 
the  mind  of  those  holding  the  principles  of  Democracy, 
attended  with  the  evil  of  encouraging  citizens  to  look  to  a 
remote  power  to  cure  their  ills,  instead  of  looking  to  them- 
selves to  cure  them. 

I  should  be  sorry  indeed  to  have  it  supposed  from  any- 
thing I  have  said,  or  from  any  omission  in  my  recital,  that 
I  do  not  recognize  the  great  services  of  the  Republican  party 
and  of  its  predecessors.  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  neither  the 
Republican  nor  the  Federal  nor  the  Whig  party  had  existed, 
there  would  have  been  raised  up  a  party  to  perform  a  func- 
tion absolutely  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the  state  and  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  the  Democratic  party  has  performed. 
Although  I  believe  that  self-relying  strength  and  manhood 
of  the  citizen  ought  to  be  the  most  precious  thing  in  the 
eyes  of  a  wise  statesman  or  law- maker,  it  would  be  short- 
sighted indeed  to  ignore  the  necessity  for  superior  organiza- 
tion, for  order,  for  systematic  executive  detail,  for  all  that 
sort  of  public  work  which  Hamilton,  the  Federalist,  in  his 
time,  and  Gallatin,  the  Democrat,  after  him,  and  in  our  day 
John  Sherman,  the  Republican,  have  done  so  wonderfully 
well.  Whether  the  Republican  party  live  or  die,  there  will 
here  and  in  every  constitutional  country  always  be  a  political 
party  urging  Government  to  disregard  the  cold  and  selfish 
logic  of  doctrinaires,  and  to  help  to  the  utmost  every  good 
cause  and  every  needy  citizen.  There  always  ought,  in  my 
opinion,  to  be  a  party  which  looks  with  favor  upon  the 
constructive  functions  of  Government,  and  another  (or  the 
same)  which  stands  ready  to  appeal  to  the  "higher  law" 
when  it  is  sought  to  stifle  justice  and  right  and  betray  hu- 
manity in  the  name  of  public  order  or  of  adherence  to 


454  The  Democratic  Party. 

sound  maxims  of  Government.  Such,  services  the  Repub- 
lican party  has  at  times  honorably  and  usefully  performed. 
JSTo  one  should  wish  its  death,  lest  some  need,  like  that  of 
forty  years  ago,  again  come  upon  the  American  people.  It 
is,  however,  for  the  Democratic  party  to  bring  every  proposi- 
tion for  taxation,  for  governmental  work  or  expenditure,  to 
tests  in  which  the  Republican  party  and  its.  predecessors  have 
not  genuinely  believed.  The  tests  are  like  these  :  Is  this  really 
a  thing  which  the  citizen  himself  can  not  well  do?  Is  this 
a  thing  which  the  neighbors  of  this  citizen — not  a  remote 
and  impersonal  being  of  unlimited  power  at  Washington, 
but  his  specific  neighbors,  the  farmer,  the  carpenter,  the 
laborer,  the  blacksmith,  the  merchant,  the  lawyer,  living 
near  by  or  far  off  within  the  United  States — any  American, 
who  contributes,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  support  of  the 
Government,  ought  to  be  compelled  for  his  sake  to  do  for 
him  ?  Is  this  work  which  Mr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Jones  and 
Mr.  Robinson,  called  by  the  methods  of  our  politics  from 
their  homes  to  sit  in  painted  chambers  at  Washington,  are 
competent  and  disposed  wisely  and  justly  to  do  ?  Let  us 
dismiss  the  term  Government  with  its  vague  meaning  and 
illusions.  Let  us  see  in  its  place  the  specific  human  beings 
who  are  to  act  under  its  name.  Through  every  act  of  benefi- 
cence of  the  Government  let  us  observe  the  correspond- 
ing burdens  which,  in  the  performance  of  that  act,  the 
Government  has  been  compelled  to  lay  upon  the  shoulders 
of  other  citizens.  It  is  the  historical  duty  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party — a  duty  frequently  ignored,  sometimes  utterly 
abandoned — to  subject  every  proposition  for  eitner  restrictive 
or  constructive  work  to  these  tests.  And  whether  the 
Democratic  party  be  the  greater  or  lesser  of  the  political 
parties  of  our  land,  whether  in  general  we  owe  to  it  a 
greater  or  less  gratitude  than  to  its  competitors,  I  can  not 
believe  that  thinking  and  patriotic  citizens  will  not  take 
care  that  this  work  shall  in  every  age  be  done  by  some  po- 
litical organization.* 

I  am  tempted,  though  I  have  really  finished  the  outline 
of  my  discussion,  not  to  close  without  touching  upon  a  so- 
cial feature  of  the  partisan  differences  in  our  part  of  the 
United  States.  I  remember  as  a  child,  during  the  Civil  War 
or  just  after  it,  hearing  a  Connecticut  lady,  a  visitor  at  my 
mother's  house,  in  some  statement  parenthetically  use  the 
expression  "  — because,  you  know,  no  respectable  people  are 

*  The  remainder  of  the  Address  was  not  actually  delivered. 


The  Democratic  Party.  455 

Democrats."  I  hardly  think  the  sentiment  was  cordially 
received  in  our  house ;  but  the  Yankee  dame  did  no  more 
than  repeat  a  saying  common  in  her  land  ever  since  the  last 
century.  Among  this  very  audience  there  are,  I  suspect, 
some  who  have  long  seen  a  wide  chasm  between  respecta- 
bility and  Democratic  partisanship.  It  is  right  to  admit 
that  this  belief  which  one  finds  even  to-day  in  the  Northern 
States,  unintelligent  and  silly  as  perhaps  it  generally  is,  has 
at  times,  and  in  some  communities,  had  its  origin  in  the 
misbehavior  of  Democratic  officials  or  unworthy  adminis- 
tration of  the  party.  But,  as  like  faults  have,  to  say  the 
least,  quite  as  often  and  as  widely  characterized  the  succes- 
sive rivals  of  the  Democratic  party,  the  faults  do  not  ade- 
quately explain  the  preponderance  of  this  sort  of  sentiment 
against  the  latter  party.  The  true  explanation,  in  my 
opinion,  lies  in  certain  historical  facts — the  very  facts  which 
underlay  something  said  to  me  years  ago  in  a  bit  of  conver- 
sational exaggeration  by  a  distinguished  man  of  large  politi- 
cal experience.  "  The  reason,"  he  said,  "  which  keeps  me 
in  the  Democratic  party  is  not  that  I  think  it  better  than 
the  Republican  party,  for  I  don't  think  it  is  so.  It  is  that 
nowadays  most  Americans  of  superior  political  intelligence 
as  well  as  conscience  are  in  the  Democratic  party ;  and  I 
would  rather  be  in  their  company."  If  the  remark  had 
really  represented,  as  I  knew  it  did  not,  the  whole  ground  of 
my  friend's  political  faith,  I  should  have  admired  it  no  more 
than  I  did  in  my  childhood  the  sharp  saying  from  Connec- 
ticut. My  friend  had  in  mind  for  the  moment  only  the 
drift  to  the  Democratic  party,  since  the  questions  of  the  war 
were  settled,  of  men  given  to  philosophical  or  historical 
generalizations  in  politics — men  whose  intellectual  independ- 
ence was  not  daunted  by  seeing  that  three  fourths,  or  more, 
of  well-to-do  people  at  the  North,  the  people  who  in  Eng- 
lish political  and  economic  literature  are  called  the  "  upper 
middle  classes,"  were  in  the  Eepublican  party.  The  three 
things  which  formerly  drove  comfortable  men  with  accumu- 
lated property,  but  lacking  breadth  or  force  of  political 
view,  to  either  the  Eepublican  or  Whig  or  Federal  party, 
or  kept  them  there,  were  the  very  things  which  have  at- 
tracted to  the  Democratic  party  not  only  the  masses  of 
laboring  men,  but  reformers  and  scholars  of  a  particular 
trend  of  thought. 

First  there  was  the  Democratic  insistence  that  political 
power  rightly  and  safely  belonged  to  Americans  without 
GO 


456  The  Democratic  Party.  » 

any  preference  of  those  superior  in  property  or  intelligence. 
It  is  a  century  since  this  insistence  drove  a  large  part  of 
"  respectability,"  so-called,  into  the  Federalist  ranks,  es- 
pecially in  the  New  England  and  Middle  States,  and  at- 
tracted to  the  Democratic  ranks  the  masses  of  poor  men 
and,  especially  in  and  near  seaports,  the  great  majority  of 
immigrants.  The  Democratic  belief  has,  however,  ceased  to 
be  lacking  in  "  respectability  " ;  it  has  become  axiomatic  in 
American  public  life.  Democrats  established  universal 
suffrage  against  the  angry  and  alarmed  contempt  of  a  ma- 
jority of  those  we  should  perhaps  call  the  most  important 
people.  But  nearly  all  Americans,  whether  important  or  un- 
important, now  see  that,  whatever  may  be  its  incidental  or 
temporary  evils,  universal  suffrage  has  led  and  is  leading  to 
a  broader,  sounder,  and  safer  dependence  upon  public  opin- 
ion. The  present  Republican  party,  no  less  than  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  has  adopted  the  theories  of  this  character  once 
so  savagely  resisted  by  the  predecessors  of  the  Republican 
party.  But  down  to  this  very  evening  vast  numbers  of  citi- 
zens of  means  and  position  in  the  North  are  Republicans 
solely  because  their  grandfathers  disliked  the  political  creed 
which  brought,  as  they  said,  the  "  rabble  "  into  an  equality 
with  them. 

The  second  cause  impelling  "  respectability  "  into  Whig 
and  Republican  ranks  was  the  firm  resistance  of  sumptuary 
legislation  by  the  Democratic  party.  It  said  to  Americans : 
You  can  not  by  law  make  men  moral.  The  attempt  to  do 
so  tends  to  a  tyranny  which,  however  exalted  its  original 
motive,  must  become  enervating  and  immoral.  To  no  gov- 
ernment other  than  that  of  Heaven  is  the  prayer  to  be  ad- 
dressed :  Lead  us  not  into  temptation.  True  morality  and 
robust  soundness  of  life  are  not  helped — they  are  hindered 
and  prevented — when  the  citizen  asks  the  Government  to 
protect  either  his  neighbor  or  himself  from  his  own  tend- 
ency to  vice,  or  when  the  majority  restrains  by  law  the 
abuses  of  innocent  things.  Thirty  years  ago,  therefore,  the 
Democratic  party  resolutely  opposed  prohibition  by  law  of 
the  liquor  traffic ;  and  to-day  that  opposition  is  approved  by 
the  overwhelming  preponderance  of  intelligence  and  virtue 
in  American  life.  It  is  only  a  third  or  fourth  party — com- 
paratively insignificant  and  not  growing,  in  spite  of  the 
nobility  and  beauty  of  character  and  motive  to  be  found 
among  its  members — which  still  advocates  the  regulation  by 
statute  of  private  morals.  Nevertheless,  in  a  considerable 


The  Democratic  Party.  457 

degree  the  personal  composition  at  the  North  of  the  two 
great  parties  is,  to  the  present  time,  the  result  of  the  fact 
that  a  generation  ago  nearly  all  the  liquor  dealers  and  their 
adherents,  from  motives  of  self-preservation,  entered  the 
Democratic  party,  and  of  the  other  fact  that  at  the  same 
time  a  great  body  of  sincere  and  pure  though  mistaken 
men  saw  in  the  Democratic  defense  of  that  personal  liberty 
to  choose  the  worse  rather  than  the  better,  which  an  all-wise 
God  gives  every  man,  a  defense  of  intemperance  and  a  wick- 
ed indifference  to  its  dreadful  results. 

A  favorite  caricature  of  the  Democratic  party  was  for 
years  the  figure  of  a  drunken,  ragged  Irishman  brandishing 
a  shillalah.  The  drunkenness  of  the  man,  his  poverty,  and 
his  foreign  origin,  each-  represented  a  Democratic  principle 
which  once  was  regarded  with  horror  by  the  majority  of 
respectable  and  well-to-do  Americans  in  the  North,  but 
which  is  now  conceded  by  the  American  people,  with  but 
insignificant  dissent,  to  be  a  true  foundation  for  a  broad  and 
enduring  commonwealth.  Drunkenness  was  the  false  pict- 
ure drawn  by  narrow,  zealous  men,  of  the  morality  which 
results  from  free  self-respect  and  self-guarding,  rather  than 
from  the  constraint  of  laws.  Poverty  signified  that  inferior 
social  and  business  position  had,  in  the  topsy-turvy  of  Amer- 
ican politics,  acquired  power  which  should  have  been  reserved 
to  the  "well-born"  of  the  early  Federalists.  The  Irish 
birth  reminded  "native  Americans"  that  political  rights 
which  should  have  belonged  solely  to  them  had  been  capt- 
ured by  foreigners. 

The  State  Kights,  or  home-rule,  theory  of  the  Democratic 
party  drew  to  it  the  majority  of  citizens  in  the  slave-holding 
States  when  the  agitation  for  abolition  began.  The  party 
was  originally  not  pro-slavery,  but  rather  the  contrary. 
When  its  condemnation  of  interference  with  domestic  insti- 
tutions of  the  States  had  very  greatly  increased  the  pro- 
portion of  Southern  slave-owners  in  its  membership,  they 
acquired  over  it  a  domination  which,  between  1840  and 
1860,  perverted  its  principles,  as  I  have  described,  and  justly 
led  to  its  overthrow.  After  slavery  perished,  the  original 
Democratic  principle  of  State  control  of  State  concerns 
remained  a  true  and  vital  principle  of  the  republic.  Still, 
in  the  light  of  all  that  happened  in  this  land  from  the 
Democratic  refusal  of  a  presidential  nomination  to  Van 
Buren  in  1844,  because  he  opposed,  the  extension  of  slavery, 
to  the  glorious  decree  of  emancipation  nineteen  years  later, 


458  The  Democratic  Party. 

Democrats  can  not  treat  as  absurd  or  unfounded  so  much 
of  the  surviving  prejudices  of  "  respectability  "  against  their 
party  as  took  their  rise  in  the  hatred  of  slavery.  For, 
although  in  its  beginning  the  abolition  sentiment  was  far 
from  "  respectable,"  it  became  "  respectable  "  in  and  by  its 
triumph.  Democrats  rightly  suffered  from  the  national  per- 
ception at  the  last  of  the  truth  that  the  rights  of  men,  black 
as  well  as  white,  are  cared  for  by  a  "  higher  law  "  than  even 
the  Federal  Constitution.  Every  sensible  and  patriotic 
American,  whatever  his  party,  should  rejoice  at  the  decay  of 
this  prejudice,  now  that  the  jealousy  of  Federal  power  is  no 
longer  a  shield  for  the  ancient  iniquity  of  slavery. 

Ought  I  not,  before  closing  an  address  made  on  a  Sunday 
evening  and  in  a  Congregational  meeting-house,  to  say  one 
thing  further  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  in  the  creed  of  Democracy 
there  is  found  the  same  principle  which  animated  the  relig- 
ious ancestors  of  those  who  regularly  worship  under  this 
roof?  The  glory  of  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury was  that  it  imposed  upon  every  man,  according  to  his 
own  conscience  and  his  own  intelligence,  a  responsibility  to 
his  Maker  which  he  could  not  rightly  put  upon  other  men 
or  upon  a  church.  The  stupendous  and  lasting  influence  of 
the  Puritans,  unlovely  and  tyrannical  as  was  much  of  their 
theocracy,  arose  from  its  exaltation  of  the  freedom  and 
privileges  of  the  citizen,  and  of  his  responsibilites.  Jeffer- 
son and  his  Virginian  associates  did  the  same  work  when 
they  destroyed  the  dominance  of  aristocracy  in  that  country 
of  planters.  The  best  social  development  of  modern  times 
among  civilized  nations,  and  among  people  of  all  religious 
beliefs,  is  toward  the  independence  and  responsibility  of  the 
individual  citizen  and  of  the  single  community,  even  if  such 
independence  and  responsibility  lead,  as  at  times  they  do,  to 
selfishness,  real  or  seeming,  and  to  jealousies  and  disorders 
which,  necessary  as  they  are,  sometimes  become  mean. 

We  know,  however — and  I  now  at  the  last  return  to  the 
sentiment  with  which  I  began  this  address — that  no  strength 
of  government,  no  efficiency  of  administration,  no  conscien- 
tious care  by  rulers  for  the  citizens  under  them,  will,  in  the 
long  run,  bring  to  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  country 
a  tithe  of  what  will  come  from  the  independent  character  of 
the  citizen  himself,  from  his  pride  in  his  self-support,  from 
his  jealousy  of  interference,  and,  to  sum  it  all  up,  from  his 
refusal,  whether  by  device  or  the  brute  power  of  majorities, 
to  cast  his  burden  upon  other  men.  When  the  citizens  of 


The  Democratic  Party.  459 

a  commonwealth  are  of  this  type,  we  need  have  no  great 
concern  about  government.  It  is  because  effect  follows 
cause  that  from  such  men  will  come  sense  and  prudence 
and  integrity  in  public  business,  efficiency  in  political  ac- 
tion, and  strength  and  thoroughness  in  administration.  So 
long  as  the  Democratic  party  in  its  life  and  practice  stands 
for  this  theory  of  government,  it  will  be  a  power  for  lasting 
public  good.  So  long  it  will  deserve,  and  I  believe  it  will 
enjoy,  a  fitting  success  and  honor. 


460  The  Democratic  Party. 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

HON.  STEWART  L.  WOODFORD: 

I  shall  not  attempt  any  criticism  of  one  of  the  most  admirable  po- 
litical papers  to  which  I  have  ever  listened — a  paper  so  judicial  in  tone, 
if  somewhat  misleading  in  its  inferences,  that  nothing  but  a  very 
careful  study  and  analysis  of  it  would  be  just  to  the  speaker  or  in- 
structive to  the  audience. 

Political  parties  represent  great  popular  forces,  and  in  every  popu- 
lar government,  whether  it  be  Monarchical,  Republican,  or  purely 
Democratic  in  form,  there  must  be  two  parties.  Sometimes  these 
parties  represent  opposing  principles  or  policies,  and  sometimes  they 
become  merely  agencies  by  which  one  man  or  set  of  men  endeavors  to 
win  power  as  against  another  set.  To  say  that  the  Democratic  party 
has  been  the  only  permanently  existing  political  organization  since  the 
origin  of  our  Government  has  always  seemed  to  me  somewhat  inaccu- 
rate. The  original  party  led  by  Thomas  Jefferson  was  known  as  the 
Republican  party.  There  has  been  as  much  change  from  that  name 
to  "  Democratic  "  as  from  "  Federalist "  to  "  Republican,"  and  I  have 
never  assented  to  the  proposition  that  the  parties  of  to-day  are  lineal 
descendants  of  the  Jeffersonian  Republicans  and  the  Federalists.  My 
friend  will  admit  that  Jefferson  was  a  protectionist  So  pronounced 
and  positive  was  he  in  his  belief  in  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  lay  imposts  to  protect  American  manufactures  that  we 
might  quote  from  his  letters  in  support  of  the  McKinley  bill.  That 
Jefferson  was  a  consistent  opponent  of  slavery  our  friend  admitted. 
If  the  Democratic  party  of  to-day  is  a  lineal  descendant  from  the 
Republican  party  of  Washington's  administration,  it  has  failed  to  con- 
tinue to  be  the  representative  of  the  purposes  and  principles  of  the 
original  organization. 

It  is  a  somewhat  singular  fact  that  when  the  Revolution  had  been 
ended  and  the  struggle  for  the  formation  of  this  Government  began, 
the  two  opposing  forces  were  these :  one  which  proposed  to  make  the 
Government  strong  enough  to  stand,  and  one  which  would  have 
made  it  so  weak  that  it  would  have  no  cohesion.  And  if  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  to-day  is  the  successor  of  the  party  which  sought  to 
form  a  government  too  weak  to  live,  it  only  repeated  its  original  en- 
deavors in  the  struggle  from  1861  to  1865.  If  the  dividing  line  is  the 
tariff — and  I  think  it  is — it  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  ablest  free- 


The  Democratic  Party.  461 

trade  speech  ever  made  in  the  United  States  Senate  was  made  by 
Daniel  Webster  before  he  became  a  protectionist,  and  the  ablest  pro- 
tectionist speech  was  made  by  Calhoun  before  he  became  a  free-trader. 
The  interests  of  the  sections  changed,  and  the  advocates  crossed  lines. 

There  are  three  great  facts  in  the  history  of  the  Democratic  party 
which  I  wish  to  note.  First,  if  the  Democratic  party  be  the  same  as 
the  original  Republican  party,  it  opposed  the  construction  of  a  Fed- 
eral government  that  could  live.  The  Federalist  party  took  control 
and  set  in  motion  our  present  Government.  When  this  was  done, 
swerving  from  its  original  idea,  the  Federal  party  died.  But  I  hardly 
think  this  fact  will  warrant  the  inference  that  its  principles  did  not 
continue  to  live.  Every  man  who  says  "  I  am  an  American,"  who 
looks  with  love  and  reverence  at  our  flag,  who  reads  with  pride  the 
story  of  the  republic,  and  who  is  proud  of  his  citizenship,  is  paying 
tribute  to  the  grand  old  party  of  Washington  and  Hamilton,  that 
gave  our  Government  its  shape  and  commanded  the  recognition  and 
respect  of  other  nations.  That  party,  proving  false  to  its  principles, 
died  ;  and  I  am  glad  it  did.  I  wish  that  all  parties  proving  false  to 
their  principles  might  die — though  I  fear  that  would  involve  the  loss 
of  the  present  Democratic  party. 

The  historical  facts  concerning  the  struggle  between  slavery  and 
freedom  were  truly  stated  by  our  friend.  It  is  the  misfortune  of  his 
party  that,  as  it  fought  against  a  strong  Government  at  the  beginning, 
it  got  bound  to  the  chariot-wheels  of  slavery  at  the  last.  I  concede 
that  there  was  a  purpose  of  unionism  in  its  efforts,  and  that  many 
clung  to  it  in  hopes  of  saving  the  Union  and  avoiding  the  bloodshed 
of  civil  war.  I  believe  with  Mr.  Shepard  that  the  greatest  honor  be- 
longs to  one  wing  of  the  Abolition  party,  but  I  doubt  whether  any 
Democrat  of  that  period  would  have  acknowledged  it.  I  doubt,  also, 
whether  any  one  will  candidly  commend  the  attitude  of  the  Democratic 
party  during  the  period  of  reconstruction. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  laboring  men  of  this  country  that  thoughtful 
men  of  both  parties  are  united  in  favor  of  the  kind  of  money  that  shall 
honestly  measure  the  value  of  labor  and  of  commodities.  That  is  a 
question  below  all  parties,  underlying  the  perpetuity  of  society  itself. 
My  friend  has  my  sympathy,  for  the  majority  of  his  party  in  Congress 
doesn't  agree  with  him  on  this  question.  The  question  at  issue  next 
fall  will  be  the  tariff.  I  doubt  if  we  could  make  any  tariff,  or  have 
none  at  all,  without  affecting  the  manufacturing  and  labor  interests 
of  the  country.  Local  and  personal  interests  are  bound  to  come  in. 
England  taxes  only  the  things  which  she  does  not  produce ;  and  no 
other  system  can  leave  out  the  local,  personal  interests.  We  must 
either  tax  only  the  things  we  do  not  produce  or  tax  others,  and  thus 


462  The  Democratic  Party. 

affect  production — there  is  the  dividing  line.  There  is  a  disposition  in 
both  parties  to  evade  an  honest  discussion — to  secure  local  advantage 
from  the  way  in  which  the  subject  affects  different  localities.  I  hope 
the  lines  will  be  drawn,  sharp  and  firm,  in  platforms  and  by  the  can- 
didates. I  thank  you  for  listening,  and  I  thank  our  distinguished 
friend  for  his  able  paper.  He  shows  a  spirit  which  rises  above  parti- 
sanship ;  and  I  have  no  fear  of  the  rule  of  a  Democrat  who  loves  his 
country  more  than  he  does  his  party. 

MR.  SHEPARD,  in  reply :  My  tongue  ought  to  be  tied  and  my  lips 
sealed  by  General  WoodfordV  kind  remarks ;  but  I  am  tempted  to 
reply  to  one  or  two  of  his  points.  I  do  not  accept  the  statement, 
widely  and  commonly  made,  that  Jefferson  was  a  protectionist.  The 
question  of  protection,  as  we  understand  it,  had  hardly  entered  the 
American  mind  in  Jefferson's  time.  Hamilton's  tariff  we  would  to-day 
not  call  a  protective  tariff.  Five  per  cent  is  vastly  different  from  a 
hundred  or  a  hundred  and  twenty  per  cent.  It  would  require  a  long 
time  fully  to  discuss  this  historical  question,  and  I  now  simply  ex- 
press my  dissent  from  the  statement  as  to  Jefferson's  tariff  views.  In 
the  second  place,  I  dissent  completely  from  the  statement  that  the 
Federal  Constitution  was  adopted  in  spite  of  Democratic  opposition. 
The  draft  of  the  Constitution  was  chiefly  Madison's,  and  Madison  was 
a  Democrat.  The  "  Federalist "  itself  was  the  joint  production  of 
Hamilton,  Madison,  and  Jay.  The  Constitution  as  adopted  was  an 
utterly  different  thing  from  that  proposed  by  the  Federalist  party. 

General  Woodford  could  not  refrain  from  extending  his  sympathy 
to  me  for  the  attitude  of  the  Democrats  in  Congress  on  the  silver  ques- 
tion. From  1885  to  1889,  however,  we  had  a  Democratic  administra- 
tion, and  during  those  four  years  not  one  step  was  taken  toward 
debasing  the  currency.  Then  a  Eepublican  administration  was  re- 
stored, and  we  were  at  once  in  trouble  over  'the  silver  and  currency 
questions.  The  present  law  as  to  the  coinage  of  silver  is  an  extreme 
violation  of  sound  principles ;  yet  it  was  passed  by  two  Republican 
houses  and  signed  by  a  Republican  President,  to  promote  the  interests 
of  a  few  States  against  the  interests  of  all.  The  present  silver  mania 
in  the  South  and  West  followed  the  cowardly  surrender  made  by  the 
present  President  and  the  last  Congress.  Had  the  attitude  of  the 
President  and  Congress  been  what  it  was  during  the  previous  Demo- 
cratic administration,  we  should  not  now  have  every  great  business  in- 
terest disturbed  by  the  silver  question. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 


BY 

HON.  ROSWELL  G.  HORR 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

The  Federalist;  Brown  and  Strauss's  Dictionary  of  American 
Politics;  Cooper  and  Fenton's  American  Politics;  Houghton's  Con- 
spectus ;  Elaine's  Twenty  Years  in  the  American  Congress ;  Wilson's 
Kise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in  the  United  States;  Greeley's 
American  Conflict ;  A  Year  of  Republicanism ;  Personal  Memoirs  of 
U.  S.  Grant ;  Herndon's  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln ;  Holland's  Life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln;  Nicolay  and  Hay's  Lincoln;  Messages  of  Presi- 
dents Lincoln,  Grant,  Hayes,  Garneld,  Arthur,  and  Harrison. 


THE    REPUBLICAN   PARTY. 

BY  HON.  ROSWELL  G.  HORR. 

I  HOPE  to  be  able  to  confine  my  remarks  in  the  treat- 
ment of  this  subject  to  the  scientific  method  so  well  un- 
derstood by  the  people  who  meet  in  this  house.  But  my 
entire  relation  to  politics  has  been  of  the  rough-and-tumble 
sort,  and  I  may  occasionally  slide  off  into  expressions  not 
strictly  scientific.  If  so,  I  beg  beforehand  to  be  excused. 

The  question  was  once  asked  Renan,  "  What  constitutes 
a  state,  what  makes  a  nation?"  His  reply  in  substance 
was,  A  nation  is  a  combination  of  people  who  have  certain 
interests  in  common,  and  who  have  labored  and  suffered 
together  in  the  past  and  are  ready  to  labor  and  suffer  in  the 
future,  and  to  die,  if  need  be,  to  promote  the  common  good. 
Patriotism,  or  love  of  country,  is  simply  love  of  family 
broadened  a  little.  In  the  development  of  the  human  race, 
the  first  social  organism  is  the  family,  headed  by  the  patri- 
arch ;  then  comes  the  tribe  or  clan,  headed  by  the  chief ; 
then  the  combination  called  a  state  or  nation,  headed  by 
a  ruler  called  king,  or  emperor,  or  governor,  or  president. 
Back  of  all  this,  as  a  cause  for  the  evolution  of  govern- 
mental institutions,  must  lie  the  defense  of  one's  own  fire- 
side. Patriotism  is  but  another  form  of  fighting  for  the 
family. 

In  the  commencement  of  all  nations,  especially  when  the 
power  comes  from  the  people,  political  parties  exist.  I 
know  it  is  common  to  note  that  there  must  be  two  great 
parties,  and  only  two.  Parties  exist  only  because  people, 
surrounded  by  different  circumstances  and  impelled  by  di- 
verse interests,  will  take  different  views  of  the  same  ques- 
tions, and  I  do  not  see  why  there  may  not  be  more  than  two 
parties.  History  bears  me  out  in  this  presumption.  No 
doubt,  as  we  were  told  by  the  gentleman  who  preceded  me 
in  this  course,  when  our  Government  was  organized  and 
very  early  in  the  organization,  there  were  two  distinct  par- 
ties :  one  the  Federal  and  the  other  the  Republican,  or,  as  it 
was  afterward  called,  the  Democratic.  The  Federal  party 
was  headed  by  Alexander  Hamilton  and  the  Republican 
party  by  Thomas  Jefferson.  No  doubt  our  present  form  of 

(465) 


466  The  Republican  Party. 

government  is  in  a  certain  sense  a  compromise  between  these 
two  different  parties.  But  I  think  any  careful  student  of 
history  will  admit  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  Constitution 
embodies  the  theories  of  Hamilton  and  not  those  of 
Thomas  Jefferson.  The  doctrine  of  Jefferson  was  that  all 
power  should  be  left  with  the  States.  He  and  his  party 
advocated  throughout  the  doctrine  that  sovereignty  should 
be  left  to  the  States,  that  all  laws  passed  by  the  national 
Congress  should  be  ratified  by  the  States.  Hamilton 
claimed  that  they  had  come  together  in  the  constitutional 
convention  to  form  a  nation;  that  on  national  questions 
the  nation  should  be  supreme;  and  that  a  law  passed  by 
Congress  should  be  as  binding  upon  the  States  that  opposed 
it  as  upon  the  others.  I  admit  that  Hamilton  had  some 
ideas  on  tenure  of  office,  etc.,  that  were  ignored.  But  the 
Eepublicans  of  that  day  did  not  get  their  doctrine  into 
the  Constitution.  It  took  all  the  ability  of  Hamilton  and 
the  rest  to  get  the  Constitution  ratified,  simply  because  it 
did  not  embody  the  Republican  principles.  The  Demo- 
crats are  right  in  tracing  the  Democratic  party  of  the  pres- 
ent day  to  the  Republican  party  of  1798 ;  but  its  princi- 
ples were  ignored  by  the  convention  and  found  no  lodg- 
ment in  the  Constitution.  The  able  lecturer  of  two  weeks 
ago  convinced  me  that  there  had  been  two  or  three  times 
in  our  past  history  when  the  Democratic  party  ought  to 
have  died.  A  good  many  people  seem  to  think  it  is  to 
the  credit  of  the  party  to  which  I  stand  opposed  that  it 
is  venerable.  I  am  not  aware  that  age,  when  it  comes  to 
questions  of  social  life,  politics,  or  religious  belief,  is  neces- 
sarily a  badge  of  respectability.  My  impression  is  that  the 
oldest  Christian  church  on  earth  is  the  worst.  Organiza- 
tion perpetuates  error  as  well  as  truth;  this  is  a  funda- 
mental truth  of  evolution.  I  admit  that  the  party  to  which 
I  belong  is  young.  I  know  it  is,  because  I  was  present  at 
its  birth.  My  first  presidential  vote  was  for  the  old  Aboli- 
tion or  Free-Soil  party,  my  second  for  the  Republican 
party ;  and  since  then  I  have  steadily  voted  with  that  party, 
taken  part  in  its  conventions,  and  helped  to  frame  its  plat- 
forms ;  and  if  I  do  not  give  you  its  history  accurately  it  is 
because  my  memory  is  at  fault. 

We  all  agree  that  the  Republican  party  came  into  exist- 
ence in  1852-'54 — actively  in  1854 — but  if  any  one  thinks 
on  that  account  that  its  principles  are  youthful,  he  doesn't 
understand  them.  The  doctrine  that  this  Government  of 


The  Republican  Party.  467 

the  United  States  is  a  nation,  that  laws  passed  by  Congress 
are  supreme,  and  that  in  all  matters  of  national  legislation 
no  State  laws  are  to  be  observed — that  was  the  doctrine  that 
prevailed  away  back  when  the  Constitution  was  formed,  that 
was  ingrafted  into  it  as  against  Thomas  Jefferson's  doctrine 
of  State  Rights. 

Another  great  principle  of  the  Republican  party  is  also 
as  old  as  the  Constitution.  As  a  party  it  has  always  been 
in  favor  of  internal  improvements — of  the  National  Govern- 
ment's looking  after  harbors,  encouraging  modes  of  inter- 
communication, building  up  the  commerce  of  the  nation. 
That  doctrine  is  as  old  as  the  nation — it  is  the  old  doctrine 
of  George  Washington  and  the  Federalist  party.  The  Re- 
publican party  is  also  in  favor  of  honest  money,  and  that 
doctrine  isn't  new ;  it  is  as  old  as  the  nation.  Also,  we  be- 
lieve in  so  levying  duties  on  imports  as  to  protect  American 
industries  and  institutions — but  neither  is  that  a  new  prin- 
ciple in  our  politics. 

The  second  law  signed  by  "Washington,  and  drafted  by 
Hamilton,  was  a  protective  tariff  bill.  And  it  was  the  same 
in  purpose  as  our  protective  tariff  bills  are  now.  Our  friend 
the  other  night  said  the  tariff  of  Hamilton  and  Washington 
was  not  a  protective  tariff,  because  the  per  cent  was  only 
seven  instead  of  forty-two — or  whatever  it  may  be.  I  was 
surprised  at  the  conclusion,  for  the  question  whether  a  tariff 
is  protective  or  not  is  not  a  question  of  per  cent.  When 
wages  here  and  in  Europe  were  almost  identical,  as  was  the 
case  in  our  earlier  history,  seven  per  cent  was  just  as  much 
protective  as  fifty  per  cent  is  now.  Wages  have  been  in- 
creasing since  then  in  this  country,  and  now  we  have  to 
make  the  tariff  higher  to  cover  the  difference.  Whenever, 
in  discussing  questions  of  this  kind,  our  opponents  talk  of 
per  cents,  watch  out !  they  are  covering  up  something.  A 
man  might  say  that  New  York  city  gained  in  a  certain  time 
twenty-five  per  cent  in  population,  and  the  gain  might  be 
400,000.  Another  place — a  little  burg — might  increase  one 
thousand  per  cent,  and  continue  insignificant.  Avoid  get- 
ting into  difficulty  with  per  cents. 

Now  for  the  history  of  the  Republican  party.  How  did  it 
come  into  existence  ?  How  did  it  happen  to  be  founded  ?  I 
do  not  differ  with  my  friend  of  the  Democratic  party  in  that 
regard.  In  1850  the  slave  power  became  so  arrogant,  made 
such  demands,  that  the  people  of,  the  North  began  to  ques- 
tion the  wisdom  of  putting  that  institution  into  control  of  the 


468  The  Republican  Party. 

destinies  of  the  nation.  A  few  Abolitionists  had  been  talk- 
ing for  twenty  years,  but  had  made  little  headway.  It  was 
the  avarice  of  the  people  in  the  South  that  finally  drove  the 
best  people  in  the  North  to  question  the  propriety  of  allow- 
ing the  slave  power  to  continue. 

The  Whig  party  went  to  pieces  when  Pierce  was  elected 
President.  There  was  a  Free- Soil  party  that  came  into  ex- 
istence some  years  before  on  the  one  notion  that  slavery 
should  be  kept  within  bounds,  and  not  extend  into  any  new 
territory.  When  the  Whig  party  dissolved,  the  great  body 
of  that  party  in  the  North  joined  with  the  Free-Soil  party 
to  form  the  new  party — the  Republican.  A  large  number — 
a  very  large  number — of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  North, 
tired  of  the  constant  aggression  of  the  slave  power,  also 
joined  us.  The  new  party  was  made  up  then  of  the  Free- 
Soil  party,  the  Northern  Whigs,  who  believed  that  slavery 
should  be  hemmed  in,  and  the  Democrats  who  were  of  the 
same  mind  ;  and  that  left  the  two  parties  of  1856  composed 
of  two  elements — the  one  of  all  those,  chiefly  in  the  North, 
who  believed  slavery  to  be  wrong,  and  sought  for  its  restric- 
tion to  the  territory  it  then  occupied,  and  the  other  of  the 
mass  of  the  people  of  the  South  and  a  large  number  of 
Northern  sympathizers,  who  believed  slavery  to  be  right, 
and  who  sought  for  its  protection  and  extension.  Besides 
these,  there  was  a  small  number  of  conservative  Whigs,  who 
reorganized  under  the  name  of  the  American  party,  and 
nominated  Millard  Fillmore  as  their  candidate  for  President. 

We  went  into  the  fight  in  '56  on  three  items — free  soil, 
free  speech,  and  free  men — and  the  Republican  party  ran 
John  0.  Fremont,  its  first  presidential  candidate,  on  that 
platform,  and  was  beaten.  But  its  enemies  found  that  for 
the  first  time  there  was  a  party  in  the  field  built  on  moral 
principles,  and  that  it  meant  business.  The  defeat  of  Fre- 
mont was  the  Bunker  Hill  fight  of  the  Republican  party. 
At  that  time  the  Republican  party  became  a  living,  active 
force.  Aided  by  Southern  slave-holders,  Buchanan,  in  the 
next  four  years,  had  succeeded  in  completing  the  ruin  of 
the  Whig  party,  but  had  driven  the  great  bulk  of  it  into 
the  new  Antislavery  party.  His  claims  in  behalf  of  the 
slave  power  were  so  preposterous  that  he  split  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  One  part  attempted  to  nominate  Jefferson 
Davis,  and  finally  nominated  Breckinridge ;  another,  Doug- 
las. With  the  Republican  party  united  and  the  Democrat- 
ic party  divided,  the  election  of  Lincoln  was  assured  two 


The  Republican  Party.  469 

months  before  the  voting  took  place.  Up  to  that  time 
(1860)  the  Republican  party  had  made  only  two  contests, 
and  now  found  itself  in  possession  of  this  great  Govern- 
ment. Then  the  very  men  at  the  South  who  had  disrupt- 
ed the  Democratic  party  turned  in  and  tried  to  destroy 
the  nation ;  and  to  do  it  they  had  to  reaffirm  the  doctrines 
of  Jefferson — the  very  doctrines  which  our  Democratic 
friends  think  so  good — and  they  took  their  States  out  of 
the  Union  on  the  principles  of  Jefferson  which  had  been 
defeated  in  the  constitutional  convention.  Now,  the  ques- 
tion whether  this  nation  was  a  rope  of  sand  or  a  govern- 
ment was  submitted  to  the  trial  of  battle.  Then  a  large 
portion  of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North  that  had 
voted  for  Douglas  flew  to  arms  and  joined  the  Eepublican 
party  or  the  army,  and  from  the  army  went  into  the  Re- 
publican ranks.  So  the  Republican  party  was  born  of  the 
effort  to  make  a  nation,  and  baptized  in  blood  to  make  a 
stable  government. 

During  the  contest  of  1860-1865  every  member  of  the 
Republican  party,  early  and  late,  was  found  standing  by  the 
old  flag — not  one  wanting.  New  questions  constantly  arose 
during  the  struggle,  but  the  question  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  Union  overshadowed  all  the  rest.  The  tariff  was  not 
heard  of  as  a  political  issue,  because  we  had  to  levy  duties 
to  get  money  for  the  use  of  the  Government,  and  the  indus- 
tries of  the  country,  in  spite  of  the  devastations  of  war, 
sprung  into  existence  with  marvelous  rapidity. 

We  had  the  solid  South  against  us  ;  we  had  a  large  class 
in  the  North  which  sympathized  with  them  and  gave  all 
the  aid  and  comfort  they  could,  in  a  moral  way,  to  the  ene- 
my. The  first  question  was  how  to  run  a  nation  without 
money  in  the  Treasury.  We  were  bankrupt.  Foreigners 
said  the  American  nation  was  a  thing  of  the  past.  The 
Republican  party  originated  the  greenbacks,  which  the 
Democrats  asserted  was  a  violation  of  the  Constitution. 
The  constitution  which  they  think  is  constantly  being  vio- 
lated is  Jefferson's  constitution — the  one  that  did  not  pass. 
When  the  war  was  concluded  the  two  parties  remained  in 
existence,  and  the  Republican  party  had  its  own  way  large- 
ly, till  it  came  to  the  difficult  question  of  reconstruction. 
This  was  finally  adjusted  on  the  principle  of  forgiveness,  and 
the  question  about  which  the  parties  next  divided  was  that 
of  giving  the  suffrage  to  the  colored  man.  Whether  it 
were  wisely  done  or  not  is  not  the  question  now ;  it  was 


470  The  Republican  Party. 

done  simply  because  the  Republicans  at  that  time  believed  it 
to  be  a  matter  of  justice.  In  1872  we  got  our  first  set-back 
by  the  opposition's  nominating  one  of  the  best  of  men  and 
one  of  the  straightest  Republicans  that  ever  breathed,  Hor- 
ace Greeley.  Our  friend  the  other  night  said  that  was  a 
blunder ;  yet,  though  it  elected  its  candidate,  the  blow  the 
Republican  party  received  then  was  one  of  the  severest. 

The  next  new  question  before  the  people  was  the  resump- 
tion of  specie  payments.  We  had  used  paper  for  currency 
until  people  believed  that  paper  was  money.  The  Greenback 
party  came  into  existence  on  the  notion  that  the  country 
could  run  its  finances  by  managing  a  paper-mill.  That 
party  was  taken  charge  of  largely  by  the  Democrats  in  order 
to  beat  their  old  enemy,  the  Republicans,  and  they  adopted 
largely  the  wild  notions  of  that  party.  The  Republican 
party  believed  it  was  time  to  return  to  specie  payments,  and 
that  cost  the  Republican  party  a  great  number  of  its  men. 
During  the  use  of  inflated  money  the  people  embarked  in 
large  speculations.  There  was  a  period  of  great  enhance- 
ment of  values  and  apparent  prosperity.  When  the  shrink- 
age commenced,  a  large  number  of  business  men  shrank 
out  of  existence  as  business  men,  and  that  cost  the  Repub- 
lican party  an  army  of  its  firm  friends.  Yet  we  were  so 
sure  that  we  were  right  that  we  went  on,  in  the  face  of 
much  adverse  talk,  and  resumed  specie  payments — and  to 
the  present  time  that  has  been  the  rule  of  the  nation. 

I  have  said  nothing  yet  of  the  great  economic  questions 
that  now  divide  the  two  great  parties.  In  the  platform  of 
the  party  that  nominated  Greeley  nothing  was  said  upon  the 
tariff  question.  It  was  called  a  "  local  issue,"  and  relegated 
to  the  congressional  districts.  It  was  a  live  issue  in  1880, 
both  parties  taking  a  square  stand.  In  the  platform  of  that 
year — on  which  Hancock  was  run — the  Democrats  put  a 
new  word.  They  believed  in  a  "  tariff  for  revenue  only." 
That  word  "  only  "  cost  them  the  presidency.  They  avoided 
it  in  the  next  campaign,  and  the  Democrats  came  into 
power.  Mr.  Cleveland  coming  to  power  ended  the  slavery 
discussion  and  the  issues  growing  out  of  reconstruction. 
In  1888  his  party,  under  his  leadership,  again  took  a  strong 
stand  in  favor  of  free  trade,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  nation  we  had  a  square  stand-up  fight  on  the 
question  of  free  trade  and  protection ;  and  the  Republicans 
won,  simply  on  that  question  as  to  how  the  duties  should  be 
levied.  We  had  only  three  things  to  talk  about — honest 


The  Republican  Party.  471 

money,  a  protective  tariff,  and  an  honest  ballot.  I  speak  of 
all  these  issues  as  matters  within  my  own  experience.  His- 
torically, I  know  I  am  right,  because  I  was  there. 

To-day  we  confront  again  the  same  enemy.  The  two 
parties  stand  opposed  to  each  other  merely  on  the  one  great 
question — the  system  of  a  protective  tariff,  adopted  by  Wash- 
ington, believed  in  by  Jefferson,  taught  by  Andrew  Jackson, 
advocated  by  Webster  and  Clay,  the  war  cry  of  the  Whigs, 
and  the  principle  to  which  the  Republican  party  to-day 
stands  committed  with  unbroken  ranks. 

Speaking  before  an  ethical  association,  I  am  expected  to 
treat  this  subject  in  its  ethical  bearings.  I  am  glad  to  have 
this  opportunity. 

Ethically,  I  have  some  reasons  for  believing  in  the  Re- 
publican party.  I  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  protection  as  a 
matter  of  ethics.  I  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  a  nation  to  so 
manage  its  affairs  that  each  individual  shall  have  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  highest  development.  If  men  in  the  United 
States  have  a  genius  for  making  locomotives,  there  should 
be  a  place  in  the  country  to  make  locomotives.  I  would 
have  everything  made  here  that  it  is  possible  to  make,  in 
order  to  give  opportunities  of  development  to  every  one  of 
our  citizens.  The  doctrine  of  protection  has  its  origin  in 
the  rational  instinct  of  the  human  mind.  It  is  taught  to 
children  and  practiced  toward  them  by  their  parents.  The 
man  who  will  not  protect  his  family  isn't  fit  to  belong  to 
any  association.  If  he  doesn't  take  care  of  his  family  him- 
self, it  is  apt  to  be  neglected — no  one  else  will  take  care  of  it. 

It  is  very  elegant  and  altruistic — the  doctrine  that  every 
one  should  work  for  everyone  else  and  do  nothing  for  him- 
self. If  the  whole  world  were  working  for  me  I  would  will- 
ingly work  for  them.  But  up  to  date,  things  are  not  man- 
aged on  that  plan. 

I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrine  of  development; 
whether  I  am  an  evolutionist  or  not  depends  on  circum- 
stances, and  on  what  "  evolution  "  means.  I  have  been  in- 
clined to  call  myself  a  free  lance ;  on  religious  questions,  a 
freethinker.  And  in  the  course  of  my  life  I  have  learned 
that  all  the  bigots  of  the  world  are  not  in  the  orthodox 
churches.  Some  of  the  worst  bigots  are  men  who  think 
they  are  the  broadest,  and  who  call  themselves  "  liberals  " 
or  "  freethinkers."  A  bigot  is  not  simply  one  who  knows 
he's  right ;  he  must  also  know  that, every  one  else  is  wrong. 
I  have  discovered  that  people  who  differ  from  me  have  got 
31 


472  The  Republican  Party. 

along  as  well  and  are  just  as  good  as  I  am,  strange  as  it  may 
seem.  I  spent  a  couple  of  weeks  last  summer  in  Utah,  and 
for  the  first  time  met  and  mingled  with  thousands  of  Mor- 
mons. I  never  found  a  more  devout  set  of  people ;  their 
piety  is  marvelous — and  their  delusion  keeps  pace  with  it, 
in  my  judgment. 

I  have  learned  to  be  charitable  toward  people  who  differ 
with  me,  and  I  have  the  kindest  feelings  for  my  friends  on 
the  other  side  of  this  political  question,  though  I  am  going 
to  say  something  now  that  may  hurt  their  feelings.  Tip  to 
date,  in  my  opinion,  the  members  of  the  Republican  party, 
taken  as  a  whole,  are  on  a  little  higher  plane  than  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Democratic  party.  They  average  up  better.  I 
do  not  claim  that  there  are  not  honest,  intelligent  gentle- 
men among  Democrats,  but  the  culture,  the  elements  that 
make  society  worth  living  in,  gravitate  toward  the  Repub- 
lican party.  From  the  standpoint  of  evolution,  the  Repub- 
lican party  has  developed  a  little  higher  plane  of  humanity 
than  our  Democratic  friends  have  yet  reached.  When  we 
look  at  people  by  groups,  individual  cases  count  for  little — 
we  gather  lessons  worth  learning.  To  illustrate :  A  year  or 
two  ago  I  lectured  before  an  audience  made  up  largely  of 
Quaker  ladies,  and  the  picture  of  their  pure  faces  has  gone 
with  me  ever  since.  I  have  never  examined  their  theology 
or  their  politics,  and  don't  know  whether  they  are  all  right 
or  all  wrong  ;  but  there  is  something  living  with  them  daily 
that  has  had  its  effect  upon  their  faces.  To  a  certain  degree — 
to  a  less  marked  degree — I  observe  this  difference  between 
Democrats  and  Republicans.  Looking  at  this  audience,  for 
example,  I  should  judge  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
people  present  were  Republicans. 

I  have  not  in  this  talk  addressed  myself  to  the  third 
party,  to  the  Independents.  I  have  the  greatest  respect  for 
the  Independent,  if  he  is  a  real  Independent,  for  one  who 
will  always  vote  for  the  best  man,  ignoring  everything  but 
the  personal  character  of  the  candidates.  But  I  believe  a 
man,  as  a  rule,  can  do  more  good  by  standing  by  one  party — 
the  one  that  has  the  best  principles — than  by  withdrawing 
from  all  parties. 

The  Republican  party  is  going  into  the  coming  presiden- 
tial campaign  on  precisely  the  same  principles  which  it  has 
been  advocating  ever  since  it  was  born.  We  believe  in  a 
nation ;  we  believe  in  internal  improvements ;  we  believe 
in  human  rights ;  we  believe  in  an  honest  ballot,  and 


The  Republican  Party.  473 

honest  money,  and  in  standing  by  the  United  States  of 
America  and  building  up  her  interests.  No  man  can  doubt 
where  we  stand  on  a  single  proposition.  And  we  mean, 
before  the  campaign  is  over,  to  make  our  opponents  state 
clearly  where  they  stand.  We  do  not  propose  to  let  them 
dodge  a  single  issue.  We  are  going  in,  not  decrepit  with 
age,  for  the  party  is  still  young ;  this  our  opponents  admit. 
I  remember  that  in  1884  it  seemed  for  a  few  weeks  as  though 
the  bottom  had  all  dropped  out,  as  if  the  old  party  was 
dead,  but  I  have  lived  to  see  the  party  regain  its  strength. 
We  believe  in  our  doctrines,  and  have  the  courage  and  in- 
tellect to  state  them.  We  have  seen  the  nation  grow  strong 
and  prosperous  under  thirty  years  of  Republican  manage- 
ment— for  the  Democrats  have  had  no  opportunity  to  put 
their  principles  into  operation. 


474  The  Republican  Party. 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

HON.  JOSEPH  C.  HENDRIX  : 

I  am  sure  we  have  all  enjoyed  the  amusing  and  original  manner  in 
which  Mr.  Horr  has  described  the  fortunes  of  the  Republican  party, 
and  I  must  thank  him,  in  the  main,  for  being  candid.  One  of  these 
days,  when  the  Republican  regime  is  ended  and  the  Democracy  has 
returned  to  its  own,  Mr.  Horr  might  well  climb  to  the  top  of  the 
Tribune  building,  and,  looking  out  over  the  land,  exclaim,  in  the 
words  of  the  defeated  French  general :  "And  has  Providence  forgotten 
all  that  1  have  done  for  him  f  " 

There  is,  nevertheless,  a  Democratic  party.  In  1888  there  were 
5,538,233  of  the  people  who  were  a  little  below  the  average,  or  98,017 
more  than  there  were  in  the  superior  Republican  ranks.  In  1884 
there  were  4,911,017  of  those  a  little  below  the  average,  or  62,683  more 
than  those  a  little  above.  And  in  the  election  in  which  you  will  par- 
don a  Democrat  for  believing  Tilden  was  elected  President  there  were 
a  quarter  of  a  million  more  Democrats  than  Republicans.  Now,  if  we 
are  living  in  a  free  country — a  country  governed  by  the  people,  and  all 
that — we  ought  to  have  some  faith  in  the  intelligence  and  patriotism 
of  the  majority.  Mr.  Horr  told  you  that  the  Republicans  believe  in  a 
very  strong  government.  We  think  they  do :  in  a  strong,  centralized 
government  with  great  powers  of  interfering  with  the  people.  We  be- 
lieve in  home  rule — in  the  right  and  ability  of  the  people  to  govern 
themselves.  It  is  rather  fortunate  for  this  country  that  for  sixty  years 
the  Constitution  was  interpreted  by  Democrats,  so  that  to-day  we  are 
unable  to  see  about  us  the  minions  of  the  Federal  Government.  Our 
police,  our  schools,  our  magistrates,  are  our  own,  and  we  see  nothing 
but  the  Custom  House  and  the  forts  in  the  harbor  to  remind  us  of  the 
Central  Government.  We  have  a  Democratic  government  because  it 
has  been  in  the  hands  of  Democrats,  and  the  Republicans  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  carry  their  theories  into  effect. 

I  take  off  my  hat  to  the  Republican  party  for  its  work  in  preserv- 
ing the  Union — by  the  help  of  Northern  Democrats.  The  reason  that 
the  Democratic  party  went  down  at  that  time  was  that  the  property 
interests  began  to  control  its  political  policy,  and  if  you  took  note  of 
Mr.  Horr's  description  of  the  influences  at  work  to  overthrow  the 
Democratic  party  at  the  present  day,  you  will  see  that  the  property  in- 
terests are  now  uppermost  in  the  Republican  party.  Mr.  Horr  said 


The  Republican  Party.  475 

that  "  ethically  "  he  believed  in  protection.  "  Ethically  "  I  believe  that 
above  all  nations  is  humanity.  Manhood  is  greater  than  the  almighty 
dollar.  If  Mr.  Ilorr  believes  in  a  stone  wall  between  the  United  States 
and  foreign  nations,  he  should  believe  in  a  similar  wall  between  New 
York  and  Brooklyn.  He  warned  us  that  he  was  liable  to  slip  into  the 
rough-and-tumble  style  of  oratory,  and  I  think  we  recognized  the  old 
alarm  bell  in  his  statement  that  the  fight  in  1888  was  between  free 
trade  and  protection.  I  deny  that  the  Democratic  party  is  a  party  of 
free  trade;  I  deny  that  the  Mills  bill  is  a  free-trade  measure,  or 
that  the  late  Democratic  President  is  a  free-trader.  We  insist  on  a 
revision  of  the  tariff  in  the  interest  of  the  many  and  not  of  a  few,  and 
we  are  ready  to  meet  our  opponents  on  this  issue.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  free-trade  tariff.  Protection  begins  in  some  form  or  other 
as  soon  as  a  duty  is  laid.  We  shall  not  live  to  see  a  direct  tax  prevail 
in  this  country ;  the  tariff  will  continue,  but  we  insist  that  we  shall  no 
longer  sustain  a  war  tariff  in  time  of  peace.  We  hear  a  great  deal 
about  "  infant  industries."  Is  it  not  about  time  to  differentiate  be- 
tween infants  and  adults?  We  do  not  object  to  protecting  the  infants 
of  our  own  generation  if  those  of  two  generations  ago  can  stand  alone. 
We  believe  it  to  be  logical  and  philosophical  that  the  tariff  should  be 
laid  for  revenue,  with  incidental  protection,  bearing  most  severely  on 
articles  of  luxury. 

I  am  not  surprised  to  find  our  friend  touchy  on  the  question  of  per 
cents.  We  can  not  get  away  from  the  fact  that  only  nine  per  cent  of 
the  people  are  getting  the  direct  benefit  of  the  Republican  party's  sys- 
tem of  protection.  When  it  returned  to  power  in  1889  its  statesmen 
wanted  to  cover  up  the  question  of  per  cents  when  the  Democrats 
tried  to  estimate  the  percentage  of  increase  of  the  McKinley  bill  over 
the  previous  tariff.  We  believe  in  the  Democratic  party  because  it  is 
based  upon  equality  and  philanthropy,  because  it  has  confidence  in  the 
possibilities  of  the  human  race,  because  it  loves  justice  and  abhors 
class  legislation.  The  Republican  idea  of  a  strong  government  attracts 
to  that  party  the  money  power  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the  masses 
of  the  people.  This  is  a  country  in  which  the  majority  should  rule. 
By  no  specious  device  should  the  rights  of  the  people  be  interfered 
with.  There  should  be  no  special  privileges.  Democrats  believe  in 
having  as  little  government  as  possible. 

As  to  being  a  little  below  the  average  grade  in  intelligence,  that  is 
what  the  feudal  barons  said  of  the  people  in  their  day.  Nevertheless, 
on  all  great  problems  the  history  of  human  evolution  has  shown  that 
the  people  were  right.  To  those  of  us  who  are  true  Americans  and 
believers  in  human  rights  Democracy  means  something.  We  believe 
we  have  a  heritage  worth  preserving,  and  are  ready  to  extend  a  help- 


476  The  Republican  Party. 

ing  hand  to  lift  the  whole  human  race  up  to  a  higher  level.  The 
Democratic  theory  is  not  "  1  am  as  good  as  you,"  but  "  Politically,  you 
are  as  good  as  I  am."  No  social  privileges — political  equality  of  the 
units  of  society — these  are  the  questions  of  the  hour.  The  history  of 
the  rise  and  growth  of  the  Democracy  is  too  long  and  bloody,  its 
achievements  are  too  sacred,  for  any  discrimination  to  be  made  here- 
after against  any  one  on  account  of  the  turn  of  his  speech,  the  cut  of 
his  coat,  or  the  color  of  the  soil  on  his  hands. 

"A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that " — 
this  is  the  creed  of  the  Democracy. 

MR.  GEORGE  E.  WALDO  : 

It  may  be  assumed,  I  think,  that  the  tariff  is  the  dividing  issue  be- 
tween the  parties  at  the  present  time.  The  great  difference  between 
them  on  that  question  is  seen  in  the  statement  made  by  the  gentleman 
who  has  just  spoken — that  only  nine  per  cent  of  the  people  are  bene- 
fited by  protection.  The  claim  of  the  Republican  party  is  that  not 
nine  per  cent  only,  but  the  whole  country  is  benefited  by  the  added 
wealth  which  protection  creates,  and  without  which  the  poor  would  be 
poorer  and  the  wages  of  laboring  men  would  be  reduced.  The  tariff 
would  find  few  supporters  indeed  if  we  did  not  believe  it  to  be  benefi- 
cial to  all  classes  of  the  people. 

Apart  from  this  question,  or  taking  a  broader  view  in  which  this 
question  is  only  incidental,  in  the  light  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  is 
there  any  reason  why  the  Republican  party  should  exist  to-day  ?  If 
the  doctrine  of  evolution,  as  applied  to  society,  means  anything,  it 
means  advance,  progress,  and  the  Republican  party  has  stood  for 
nothing  else  in  the  history  of  this  country.  Every  great  reform  since 
the  Republican  party  was  formed  has  been  a  Republican  measure. 
The  Democratic  party  is  a  party  of  conservatism,  always  opposed  to 
the  new.  It  started  out  with  the  idea  that  we  should  have  no  govern- 
ment. We  can  hardly  take  up  a  platform  of  that  party  since  it  came 
into  existence  without  finding  in  it  a  protest  against  the  powers  of  the 
national  Government.  That  we  have  any  Federal  Government  at  all 
is  owing  to  Hamilton  and  Washington  and  the  opponents  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  The  supremacy  of  this  Government  was  supported  by  the 
Whigs  and  sustained  during  the  Civil  War  by  the  Republican  party. 
The  work  of  the  Republican  party  is  not  yet  done,  if  we  believe  in  prog- 
ress. The  Democratic  party  has  doubtless  had  its  use  in  our  history. 
If  it  were  not  for  the  conservatives,  the  radicals  would  tear  everything 
to  pieces.  The  conservatives  are  a  drag,  and  perhaps  help  to  keep  us 
down  to  the  right  gait  in  our  efforts  to  advance ;  but  there  is  no 


The  Republican  Party.  477- 

reason  why  we  should  give  up  to  them.  If  we  desire  to  see  the  country 
go  on  with  internal  improvements,  if  we  love  our  country  as  a  whole, 
and  would  see  it  developed  in  all  its  wonderful  resources  and  possi- 
bilities, we  must  stand  by  the  Republican  party. 

MR.  HENRY  S.  BELLOWS: 

I  appreciate  the  statement  made  by  the  first  speaker,  that  this  is  not 
an  ordinary  political  debate,  and  that  the  line  of  discussion  in  such  a 
debate  is  not  proper  here.  Like  him,  I  am  accustomed  to  political  con- 
troversy, and  if  I  fail  to  keep  within  the  proper  course  I  hope  you  may 
have  for  me  the  same  charity  as  for  him.  I  assume  that  the  most  of  this 
audience  are  Republicans.  I  was  much  interested  in  what  the  speaker 
said  about  the  sweet  faces  of  the  Quaker  women.  When  he  looks  in  the 
faces  of  Republicans,  he  sees  just  such  countenances  as  the  Quakers  had. 
I  look  at  his  genial  face,  and  can  almost  believe  him  to  be  a  Democrat. 
But  the  question  before  us  is  not  whether  such  pleasant  fancies  have 
any  warrant ;  it  is  a  question  of  principles,  a  question  of  manhood,  of 
which  of  the  two  parties  has  been  most  true  to  mankind.  Allusion 
was  made  to  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Alexander  Hamilton.  Hamilton 
was  in  favor  of  a  "  strong  government " ;  he  wanted  a  monarchy,  in 
fact,  but  our  friends  leave  that  fact  out  of  the  discussion.  What  did 
Thomas  Jefferson  want  I  Let  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
answer :  we  will  not  leave  that  out.  Jefferson  was  a  true  Democrat, 
in  sympathy  with  the  ^  people,  and  all  the  great  measures  of  political 
progress  have  been  in  line  with  his  principles.  Coming  down  to  the 
period  of  reconstruction,  after  the  rebellion  of  the  South,  what  was  the 
thirteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution  ?  It  was  in  direct  accord 
with  the  principles  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  When  Jefferson  presented 
the  bill  which  gave  the  Northwest  Territories  to  the  United  States, 
it  provided  that  slavery  should  not  exist  in  these  territories  after  1800. 
New  Jersey  objected,  and  this  provision  was  struck  out.  Two  years 
later  the  ordinance  of  1797  was  passed.  In  our  reconstruction  meas- 
ures we  went  back  to  the  principles  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 

When  the  speaker  of  the  evening  combines  the  words  "  free  soil," 
"free  speech,"  and  "free  men,"  and  would  have  us  infer  that  the 
Republican  party  in  its  origin  was  an  abolition  party,  he  is  mistaken. 
In  the  beginning  of  our  Government  slavery  existed  in  New  York, 
Massachusetts,  and  all  the  Northern  States  as  well  as  in  the  South. 
The  North  got  rid  of  it  because  it  didn't  pay.  It  gradually  died  out, 
and  our  fathers  thought  the  same  thing  would  occur  in  the  South. 
Eli  Whitney,  however,  invented  the  cotton-gin,  and  slavery  became 
profitable.  Money — money  which  makes  the  happy  faces  that  please 
my  friend— claimed  the  South  for  slavery,  and  the  Republican  party 


478  The  Republican  Parti/. 

did  not  oppose  the  claim.  The  Republicans  did  not  abolish  slavery. 
Lincoln  did  not  want  to  do  it ;  war  did  it.  Fremont  issued  an  eman- 
cipation proclamation  in  the  West,  and  Lincoln  revoked  it.  Mr. 
Seward,  a  leading  Republican,  was  in  favor  of  putting  slavery  into  the 
Constitution  to  stop  the  discussion  of  the  question  in  Congress.  The 
free-soil  fight  over  the  territory  we  got  from  Mexico  was  not  a  question 
of  principle.  There  was  no  pretense  of  interfering  with  slavery  in  the 
States  where  it  existed.  This  is  the  true  history  of  the  question.  I 
know,  because  I  saw  it — just  the  same  as  my  distinguished  friend. 

Both  parties,  as  Mr.  Hendrix  stated,  are  in  favor  of  a  tariff.  It  is 
only  a  question  of  how  it  shall  be  adjusted.  The  idea  of  the  Repub- 
licans is  that  whenever  we  establish  a  protective  duty,  competition  will 
produce  such  a  condition  of  industry  as  will  enable  us,  after  a  time,  to 
undersell  foreigners.  How  has  it  been  since  the  tariff  was  taken  off 
of  sugar?  We  paid  the  tax  for  ninety  years,  and  now  it  is  taken 
off.  Who  was  "  protected  "  while  the  duty  was  assessed  ?  Shall  we 
adopt  the  policy  of  protection  in  a  broad,  sweeping  way,  or  shall  we 
scrutinize  every  point,  taking  each  case  on  its  own  merits  ?  This  is 
the  question  at  issue  between  the  two  parties  to-day.  Let  us  not  for- 
get that  all  the  virtue,  all  the  patriotism,  and  all  the  industry  that 
creates  our  national  prosperity,  do  not  reside  in  anyone  political  party. 

MR.  HORR,  in  reply  : 

I  must  be  brief,  but  I  think  I  can  do  the  last  gentleman  some  good. 
I  was  amused  at  his  treatment  of  the  subject.  It  is  wonderful  that  he 
should  tell  you  that  the  country  had  to  go  back  to  the  principles  of  Jeffer- 
son in  our  reconstruction  measures.  Why  didn't  he  say  that  the  entire 
Democratic  party  voted  against  the  thirteenth  amendment  ?  Where 
was  Jeffersonian  Democracy  then  ?  In  legislatures  and  in  Congress 
they  voted  solidly  against  it.  He  supposes  that  the  tax  on  sugar  settles 
the  whole  tariff  question.  His  treatment  of  the  subject  shows  that  he 
has  no  idea  of  the  difference  between  a  revenue  tariff  and  a  protective 
tariff.  We  can  not  build  up  the  sugar  industry  in  this  country  by  a 
tariff.  Any  duty  put  on  an  article  which  we  can  not  produce  is  a  rev- 
enue tariff,  and  increases  the  price  of  the  article.  What  made  every 
Democrat  in  the  party  vote  against  making  sugar  free  1  It  was  their 
kind  of  a  tariff. 

I  was  pleased  with  the  candor  of  Mr.  Hendrix,  but  I  was  surprised 
that  he  should  tell  you  that  because  the  Democratic  party  got  60,000 
votes  more  than  the  Republican  party,  therefore  the  mass  of  the  people 
were  against  us.  He  forgot  that  in  the  South  200,000  Republicans 
were  disfranchised.  He  also  misinterpreted  my  statement  that  as  a 
whole  the  Republican  party  is  higher-toned  than  the  Democratic,  into 


The  Republican  Party.  479 

an  admission  that  the  lowly  and  humble  were  in  the  Democratic  ranks. 
I  said  that  in  every  grade  the  Republicans  are  superior.  We  have 
plenty  of  mechanics,  for  example,  but  they  average  better  and  are  more 
intelligent  than  the  mechanics  of  Democratic  sympathies.  Wherever 
you  find  school-houses  plentiful,  there  you  find  the  Republicans  in  the 
majority.  I  don't  say  that  all  saloon  keepers  are  Democrats,  but  the 
Democrats  will  get  away  with  us  in  the  matter  of  saloons.  Wherever 
you  find  gross  abuses  of  municipal  government,  ballot-box  stuffing,  and 
so  forth,  you  don't  find  Republicans  under  arrest. 

DR.  JANES:  How  about  Philadelphia? 

I  admit  that  Philadelphia  is  an  exception  ;  but  the  exception  proves 
the  rule.  Where  will  you  find  another  instance1? 

As  regards  the  tariff,  the  Democrats  are  attacking  it  by  piecemeal. 
They  do  not  bring  any  consistent  measure  to  oppose  to  ours.  At  this 
rate,  how  long  do  you  suppose  it  will  take  them  to  get  through  I 
There  are  2,500  items  in  the  bill,  and  it  would  take  800  years  to  go 
through  the  list.  In  the  coming  campaign  they  must  tell  us  where 
they  stand  on  the  silver  question  and  on  reciprocity.  By  reciprocity, 
as  applied  to  tariff  legislation,  I  mean  a  law  that  enables  us  to  make 
arrangements  with  another  nation  to  take  from  us  what  they  do  not 
produce  and  to  sell  us  what  we  do  not  produce.  It  is  a  serious  ques- 
tion, how  to  manage  the  industries  of  our  country  so  as  to  make  it 
prosperous  ;  and  I  believe  the  Republican  party  has  discovered  the  true 
method  of  its  solution. 


THE 
INDEPENDENT  IN  POLITICS 


BY 

JOHN  A.  TAYLOR 

AUTHOR  OP  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  STATE,  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ART,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Spencer's  Justice,  Essays — Scientific,  Political,  and  Speculative, 
Recent  Discussions,  The  New  Slavery,  and  The  Man  vs.  the  State ; 
Lowell's  The  Independent  in  Politics ;  Stickney's  Democratic  Govern- 
ment, The  Political  Problem,  and  A  True  Republic ;  Storey's  Politics 
as  a  Duty  and  as  a  Career ;  Ivins's  Machine  Politics ;  Mackay's  A  Plea 
for  Liberty ;  Comstock's  History  of  Civil  Service  Reform. 


THE   INDEPENDENT  IN  POLITICS. 

BY  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR. 

"  Not  once  or  twice  in  our  rough  island  story 
The  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory; 
lie  that  walks  it,  only  thirsting 
For  the  right,  and  learns  to  deaden 
Love  of  self,  before  his  journey  closes, 
He  shall  find  the  stubborn  thistle  bursting 
Into  glossy  purples,  which  outredden 
All  voluptuous  garden  roses. 
Not  once  or  twice  in  our  fair  island  story 
The  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory." 

BY  far  the  noblest  product  of  human  endeavor  is  hu- 
man government.  Not  the  exact  science  of  numbers  which 
measures  the  flight  of  constellations,  nor  of  physics  which 
reduces  to  a  few  simple  substances  the  complex  chemistry  of 
the  material  universe,  can  approach  the  profound  signifi- 
cance of  that  mingled  science  and  art  which  provides  for 
and  administers  to  vast  associations  of  human  beings  effi- 
cient organic  law.  The  supreme  hope  of  all  real  statesmen 
has  been  to  devise  a  perfect  scheme  of  government — one 
which  should  relegate  to  obscurity  the  wrong,  protect  and 
develop  the  right,  insure  good  social  order,  afford  the  most 
ample  opportunity  for  untried  methods  of  progress  and 
improvement,  and  preserve  unimpaired  the  primal  safe- 
guards of  tranquil  living.  Among  the  most  fruitful  con- 
tributions to  this  end  has  been  that  system  of  rule  which 
recognized  as  the  sole  squrce  of  power  those  members  of 
the  community  who,  arrived  at  the  age  of  discretion,  were 
invested  at  once  with  the  responsibilities  and  privileges  of 
citizenship. 

When,  as  the  outgrowth  of  our  own  early  history,  man- 
hood suffrage  was  ordained  as  an  integral  part  of  our  plan 
of  government,  it  was  proudly  contended  that  wisdom  could 
go  no  farther  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  "  how  to  gov- 
ern." Perhaps  it  may  be  fairly  stated  that  the  contempla- 
tion of  our  fathers  was  that  every  political  issue  incident 
to  the  continued  prosperity  of  the  nation  was  to  be  submit- 
ted to  the  great  jury  of  all  the  citizenship  for  final  de- 
termination ;  nor  was  it  ever  doubted  that  such  decision, 


484  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

once  reached,  should  be  forever  recognized  as  the  absolute 
truth  in  the  premises.  But  the  instant  an  issue  was  pre- 
sented it  must  have  been  foreseen  that  this  aggregation  of 
human  wisdom  would  divide  itself  into  two  parts — one  in 
favor  and  the  other  against  the  proposition  sought  to  be 
enforced  ;  and  hence  parties  would  inevitably  arise,  involv- 
ing the  skillful  and  thorough  organization  of  two  great 
armies,  one  favoring  and  the  other  opposing  the  proposed 
public  action. 

Scarcely,  however,  could  it  have  been  expected  that  the 
constituents  ranged  on  one  side  of  a  particular  issue  would 
forever  after  upon  all  new  issues  preserve  like  opinions 
and  stand  loyally  together  as  a  great  political  army  in  the 
treatment  of  new  questions  of  policy  and  under  constantly 
changing  environment.  Less  still  could  it  have  been  im- 
agined that  all  members  in  good  and  regular  standing  in 
the  same  party  would  be  expected  to  think  the  same 
thought  about  the  thousand  and  one  subordinate  interests 
having  no  relation,  either  causal  or  sequential,  to  the  main 
issue  upon  which  they  agreed;  or  that  the  same  body  of 
men  should,  during  their  entire  lives,  receive  with  the 
same  approval  or  disapproval  the  new  questions  which 
should  arise  long  after  the  issue  which  they  had  been  or- 
ganized to  promote  had  been  settled  and  made  a  part  of 
ancient  history.  Yet  such  is  the  interpretation  now 
widely  given  to  party  loyalty  by  the  "  wheel-horses  "  and 
"  mainstays  "  of  modern  politics. 

No  man  can  be  strictly  loyal  to  his  political  party  in 
this  day  and  generation  who  disagrees  by  his  vote  with 
the  formally  expressed  opinions  of  its  political  platform, 
or  refuses  to  further  the  election  of  its  regularly  nomi- 
nated candidates.  Men  are  continually  heard  to  say : 
"  There  is  no  Republican  blood  in  me ! "  or  "  There  is  no 
Democratic  blood  in  me ! "  and  demonstrate  in  all  their 
acts  and  conversation  that  they  inherit  their  political,  as 
they  do  their  religious,  convictions  from  a  remote  ancestry. 

It  is  my  purpose  this  evening  not  at  all  to  recommend 
or  advise  that  any  person  should  not,  in  the  exercise  of 
an  intelligent  political  free  will,  ally  himself  during  his 
entire  life  with  either  of  the  two  great  political  parties ; 
but  rather  to  inquire  whether  or  not  there  is  any  room 
for  a  consistent,  patriotic,  and  honorable  exercise  of  politi- 
cal duty  entirely  outside  of  and  unconnected  with  either 
of  the  two  parties.  I  want  to  approach  the  consideration 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  485 

of  this  inquiry  in  the  absolute  good  faith  which  truth  and 
candor  ought  to  compel,  with  the  most  respectful  appre- 
ciation of  all  that  political  parties  have  done  for  our  coun- 
try, and  with  the  most  sincere  recognition  of  the  priceless 
public  service  of  men  in  the  ranks  of  either  party  whose 
proudest  boast  it  is  that  they  have  never  voted  any  other 
than  the  party  ticket  during  the  entire  period  of  their 
exercise  of  the  franchise.  I  want  also  freely  to  admit  that 
many  of  the  names  which  stand  highest  on  the  list  of  our 
country's  benefactors  are  those  of  men  who  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  without  variableness  or  shadow  of  turning, 
have  never  suffered  themselves  for  a  single  moment  to 
falter  in  unquestioned  allegiance  to  the  party  of  their  es- 
pousal. 

Conceding  this  much,  it  must  be  asked  in  return  for 
those  men  who  find  it  impossible  to  continue  their  former 
party  affiliations,  or  to  subscribe  to  any  new  oaths  of  party 
fealty,  that  they  shall  be  recognized  and  treated  as  men 
just  as  earnest  in  their  love  of  country,  just  as  unflinching 
in  their  devotion  to  principle,  and  just  as  desirous  of  the 
highest  good  of  all  mankind,  as  are  their  fellows  whose  feet 
are  still  marking  time  in  the  ranks  of  the  regular  army. 

Let  us  then  make  as  our  first  inquiry :  "  What  are  the 
implied  obligations  of  the  social  compact  ?  "  All  must  con- 
cede that  personal  independence  is  partially  surrendered 
wherever  communities  are  organized,  and  that  absolute 
authority  to  determine  all  supreme  questions  must  be 
lodged  somewhere.  "  Liberty/'  as  Burke  says,  "  must  be 
limited  in  order  to  be  possessed."  Republican  institu- 
tions repudiating  the  one-man  authority  declare  the  su- 
premacy of  the  fairly  expressed  will  of  the  majority,  and 
the  individual  is  left  but  two  courses — either  to  submit  to 
this  law  of  the  majority,  or  to  take  himself  out  of  the 
community.  If  he  would  enjoy  the  blessings,  he  must  en- 
dure the  penalties  of  associated  action.  If  he  would  have 
the  protection,  he  must  suffer  the  inconvenience  of  govern- 
ment. But  here  it  is  to  be  clearly  noted  that  he  may  cease 
to  belong  to  the  community  by  abdicating  his  citizenship. 

Why,  then,  should  the  tyranny  of  a  party  majority  be  any 
more  irksome,  and  why  should  it  be  insisted  upon  that,  re- 
fusing to  be  controlled  by  the  tyranny  of  one  kind  of  party 
majority,  he  should  be  left  no  other  course  than  forthwith 
to  submit  to  the  like  tyranny  at  the  hands  of  the  other  kind 
of  party  majority  ? 


486  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

Nor  let  it  hastily  be  concluded  that  the  principle  now 
contended  for  involves  any  such  profound  absurdity  as  that 
where  citizens  are  associated  for  a  common  purpose  any 
other  rule  of  action  can  obtain  than  that  ordained  by  the 
larger  number  of  the  interested  persons.  This  is  a  law  of 
business  procedure,  society  organization,  and  political  evolu- 
tion. There  can  be  no  coherence  of  action  or  continuity  of 
purpose  otherwise.  All  associated  action  must  go  forward 
upon  the  proposition  that  the  whole  agree  to  dedicate  all 
their  energies  to  execute  the  decrees  of  a  part.  But  this 
rule  of  action  can  only  effectually  proceed  where  the  objects 
to  be  obtained  are  of  common  interest  and  all  the  units  of 
action  are  impelled  toward  a  definite  end ;  nor  is  there  any 
absolute  necessity  for  associated  action. 

To  surrender  the  individual  preference  as  to  political 
action  to  the  prevailing  opinion  by  a  continuous  obligation 
to  sustain  that  opinion  during  the  entire  future,  under  all 
conditions  and  perhaps  against  the  irrefutable  logic  of 
events  still  to  happen,  is  to  dismantle  the  human  judgment 
of  its  regal  crown  of  individuality  and  to  declare  that 
enfranchised  citizens  are  to  be  counted  merely  like  cattle  in 
the  shambles  of  political  contention.  To  generally  accept 
the  often  avowed  doctrine  of  "  Once  a  Democrat,  always  a 
Democrat,"  "  Once  a  Republican,  always  a  Republican,"  is 
to  narrow  the  mind  and  conscience  of  citizenship  with  Pro- 
crustean severity.  It  is  to  place  the  partisan  above  'the 
patriot,  the  voter  above  the  man.  For,  talk  as  one  will  of 
party  loyalty,  and  prate  as  one  may  of  political  consistency, 
any  view  of  political  duty  which  requires  as  its  logical 
sequence  the  surrender  of  manhood  and  the  individual 
arbitrament  of  the  citizen  proclaims  thereby  that  it  is  as 
much  at  war  with  the  manly  instincts  of  the  human  heart 
as  it  is  in  contradiction  to  the  plainest  requirements  of  socio- 
logical law. 

Call  the  roll  at  what  time  you  please  of  the  world's 
noblest  sons,  and  the  names  that  illumine  their  respective 
ages  and  challenge  the  completest  homage  of  all  succeeding 
centuries  are  the  names  of  those  men  and  women  who  have 
counted  no  anathemas  of  church,  no  proscription  of  state, 
no  banishment  from  country,  as  too  great  a  price  to  pay  for 
the  steadfast  maintenance,  before  all  the  world,  of  their 
inviolable  allegiance  to  that  within  them  which  glorified 
and  sanctified  their  own  unspotted  manhood — their  indi- 
vidual conscience.  No  age,  or  country,  or  church,  or  party, 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  487 

or  civilization,  has  been  barren  of  such  spirits.  In  the 
Church  they  have  been  called  Luthers,  in  the  state  Wash- 
ingtons,  in  science  Darwins,  and  wherever  you  shall  garner 
from  any  country  its  greatest  men,  the  list  will  be  largely 
composed  of  those  who  have  sat  apart  from  the  multitude, 
cherishing  with  undaunted  persistency  the  supremacy  of 
their  individual  convictions. 

But  this  tyranny  of  a  party  majority  of  which  we  are 
speaking  has,  under  the  stress  and  strain  of  contemporary 
politics,  grown  to  be  something  still  more  odious.  When 
Jefferson  wrote  in  1824  of  party  divisions,  he  summed  up 
the  then  existing  parties  as  composed  on  the  one  hand  of 
those  who  wished  to  draw  all  powers  into  the  hands  of  the 
higher  classes,  and  on  the  other  of  those  who  had  confi- 
dence in  the  people  as  the  most  honest  and  safe  depository 
of  the  public  interests,  and  added  that  the  appellation  of 
aristocrats  and  democrats  was  the  true  one  expressing  the 
essence  of  all. 

To-day  we  have  to  submit,  assuming  that  we  are  parti- 
sans, not  to  the  behest  of  a  majority  of  our  party,  but  to  the 
command  of  a  very  small  minority  of  that  majority.  The 
machinery  of  expressing  personal  preference  within  the 
party  is  so  skillfully  adjusted  that  the  choice  at  the  party 
primary  is  limited  to  determining  which  of  two  generally 
very  bad  men  shall  go  to  the  State  convention,  and  if  by 
accident  some  very  good  man's  name  appears  upon  the 
ticket  at  the  primary,  he  finds  himself  in  such  bad  company 
in  the  delegation  that  he  incontinently  resigns,  and  a  dele- 
gate not  too  good,  or,  as  an  evolutionist  ought  to  say,  a 
person  more  in  harmony  with  the  environment,  is  put  in 
his  place.  So  that  the  confiding  patriot  who  attempts  to 
reform  within  his  own  party  is  suffered  mostly  to  carry  a 
flickering  torch  at  the  rear  of  the  procession,  and  the  only 
part  of  political  action  in  which  he  is  suffered  to  stand  at 
the  head  is  on  the  subscription  paper,  which  is  passed 
around  after  the  election  with  unerring  regularity,  to  make 
up  the  ever-present  deficiency  in  the  campaign  fund. 

Now,  while  we  may  not  subscribe  to  Ruskin's  assertion 
that  "  men  only  associate  in  parties  by  sacrificing  their 
opinions,  or  having  none  worth  sacrificing,"  yet  it  must  be 
confessed,  I  think,  that  here  and  now  in  the  year  1892  the 
men  who  influence  party  action  are  in  the  main  men  who 
would  not  be  intrusted  with  the  direction  or  control  of  any 
considerable  business  enterprise.  They  are  the  men  who, 
32 


488  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

shouting  vociferously  for  party  loyalty,  stab  in  the  dark  the 
candidates  of  a  rival  faction.  They  are  the  men  who  are 
periodically  possessed  with  the  gravest  apprehension  lest 
some  of  their  fellow-partisans  are  becoming  too  good  for 
their  party. 

It  is  essential  to  remember  that  the  political  problem 
which  we  are  considering  is  one  applicable  alone  to  the 
present  epoch.  ISTo  independent  in  politics  denies,  so  far  as 
I  am  aware,  that  in  the  supreme  crises  of  national  history, 
when  some  absorbing  issue  of  right  or  wrong  is  presented 
for  determination,  it  is  the  duty,  as  it  is  the  privilege,  of  the 
voter  to  attach  himself  to  the  one  political  army  which 
promotes  his  convictions,  and  to  wage  in  that  army  a  loyal 
warfare  for  victory ;  and  that  in  the  prosecution  of  war  all 
other  differences  of  opinion  are  to  be  subordinated  is  an 
inevitable  condition  to  success. 

This  it  was  which  gave  coherence  and  inspiration  to  the 
cause  of  the  Republican  party  in  1856.  It  was  the  success- 
ful organization  and  enrollment  of  men  of  differing  political 
faiths  upon  the  supreme  issue  of  national  unity  that  drew 
to  the  new  Republican  party  so  great  a  number  of  the  inde- 
pendent voters  in  both  of  the  old  parties  as  to  almost  insure 
success  in  its  first  campaign.  So,  too,  when  the  issue  of 
union  or  division  developed  as  an  inseparable  complement 
the  even  greater  issue  of  human  liberty  or  human  slavery, 
the  one  inflexible  determination  of  the  voting  population 
was  demonstrated  to  be  the  supremacy  of  the  Union  and 
dethronement  of  slavery. 

But  no  man  who  now  recalls  or  has  ever  read  the  career 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  during  that  eventful  period  can  fail  to 
observe  that  he  was,  beyond  all  men  who  have  ever  lived,  an 
independent  in  politics.  He  was  conspicuously,  at  all 
crucial  periods  of  the  war,  independent  of  and  vastly  wiser 
than  his  party.  Of  him  no  more  bitter  things  were  said 
than  by  his  own  partisan  organs.  He  was  denounced  in  set 
terms  as  a  traitor  to  his  party  and  his  country  by  many  of 
the  most  prominent  Republican  newspapers.  So  strong  was 
the  openly  expressed  and  generally  held  detestation  of  his 
indifference  and  opposition  to  party  behests,  that  nothing 
but  the  opportune  victories  on  the  battle-field  during  the 
months  preceding  his  second  election  saved  him  from 
defeat. 

Now,  as  to  this  organization  called  the  Republican  party, 
which  at  the  close  of  the  war  and  perhaps  for  some  time 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  489 

thereafter  stood  in  firm,  compact  coherence  upon  the  ques- 
tion which  inflamed  all  its  membership  with  patriotic  fervor, 
was  it  supposable  that  all  its  membership  should  forever 
thereafter  agree  upon  the  new  issues  which  presented  them- 
selves? To  suppose  so  would  be  to  determine  that  a  body 
of  patriotic  men  organized  for  a  given  purpose  have  agreed 
to  do  battle  all  their  lives  for  whatever  purpose  a  majority 
of  their  organization  should  summon  them. 

But  let  us  now  consider  briefly  what  is  meant  by  the 
phrase  "  The  Independent  in  Politics."  First,  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  the  independent  is  not  necessarily  unidentified 
with  existing  political  parties,  although  he  must  at  all  times 
stand  ready  to  be.  The  independent  in  politics  within  the 
political  parties  is  one  who  votes  with  his  party  upon  all 
questions  which  do  not  challenge  the  approval  of  his  own 
conscience,  but  who  gives  the  benefit  of  his  action  to  his  own 
conscience  whenever  he  is  called  upon  to  determine  whether 
his  own  or  some  other  conscience  shall  prevail. 

The  independent  in  politics  outside  of  both  parties — who 
may  perhaps  be  designated  as  of  the  genus  Mugwump — is 
one  who  has  determined  that  he  can  best  promote  the  pub- 
lic interest  by  claiming  no  affiliation  with  either  party,  de- 
nying himself  the  emoluments  as  he  is  relieved  from  the 
obligations  of  such  alliances,  thus  holding  himself  at  full 
liberty  to  criticise  and  oppose  candidates  and  proposed  pub- 
lic action  according  as  the  one  or  the  other  shall  commend 
themselves  to  his  personal  approval.  Whatever  else  may  be 
said  of  the  Mugwump,  I  think  ifc  must  be  conceded  that  his 
position  is  from  his  standpoint  logical,  consistent,  and  patri- 
otic, and  in  saying  this  I  am  speaking  only  of  those  who  sin- 
cerely take  this  position. 

The  supreme  arbitrament  of  private  conscience  has  dur- 
ing our  entire  national  career  secured  the  recognition  of 
government,  as  witness  the  exemption  from  military  duty 
of  the  Quakers  and  from  Sabbatarian  regulations  of  the 
Seventh-day  Baptists  and  Jews  ;  and,  wherever  any  man  or 
woman  is  believed  to  be  sincere  in  standing  upon  conscien- 
tious ground,  it  is  everywhere  among  civilized  nations  ac- 
knowledged as  a  standpoint  higher  than  the  law  of  the  land 
itself.  Indeed,  the  change  from  monarchical  absolutism  to 
democratic  sway  had  no  significance  if  it  did  not  install  in 
the  highest  place  of  ultimate  determination  the  edict  of  the 
individual  as  to  his  own  conduct.  . 

It  is  common  to  hear  men  holding  such  a  position  stigma- 


490  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

tized  as  hypocrites,  Pharisees,  men  too  good  to  live,  doctri- 
narians, cranks,  and  soreheads ;  and  it  must  be  candidly 
admitted  that,  wherever  or  for  whatever  purpose  men  classify 
themselves,  a  certain  number  of  camp-followers  denied  the 
privilege  of  even  hanging  on  the  outskirts  of  regular  organ- 
izations will  seek  to  ally  themselves  with  the  irregular  forces. 
Indeed,  you  must  know  all  sides  of  an  apparent  human 
being  before  you  can  determine  that  he  is  a  man. 

Consider  for  a  moment,  however,  what  it  means  to  stand 
outside  the  popular  throng,  to  see  the  old  procession  in 
whose  ranks  your  feet  have  once  marked  loyal  time  march- 
ing onward  with  you.  Take,  for  example,  one  of  the  fore- 
most thinkers  and  perhaps  the  most  accomplished  orator  of 
our  times.  A  man  who  was  present  at  the  birth  of  the  Re- 
publican  party  and  was  one  of  the  most  efficient  of  its  lead- 
ers ;  a  man  whose  silvery  sentences  charmed  many  a  patri- 
otic youth  into  its  allegiance ;  a  man  whose  face  and  speech 
and  heart  and  soul  have  been  for  more  than  one  human 
generation  the  synonym  of  candor  and  sincerity  and  who 
represents  to-day  the  highest  form  of  disinterested  patriot- 
ism. Consider  what  it  is  to  him  with  all  his  gracious  ac- 
complishments and  splendid  abilities  to  renounce  all  hope 
of  political  preferment,  to  deny  himself  the  comradeship  of 
the  old  allies  and  compeers  of  his  youth,  and  to  salute  alone 
the  ensign  of  his  private  convictions. 

It  little  boots  to  say  that  his  judgment  was  wrong.  The 
man  who  substitutes  another's  conscience  for  his  own  is  by 
that  very  token  dehumanized  and  made  a  cipher.  On  all 
questions  of  mere  expediency  one  may  yield  to  the  judg- 
ment of  his  fellows,  but  against  the  sure  and  steady  light 
of  his  conviction  on  a  question  of  right  and  wrong  not  forty 
thousand  fellows  should  be  able  to  move  a  manly  man. 

Indeed,  this  whole  question  of  party  supremacy  seems  to 
be  a  case  of  misplaced  emphasis.  The  highest  function  of 
mankind  is  not  the  patriotic,  the  teaching,  or  even  the  re- 
ligious function.  It  is  the  function  of  manhood  itself ;  it  is 
the  sublime  intimation  of  the  divine  nature ;  it  is  the  royal 
quality  of  sovereignty.  He  who  on  such  questions  abdicates 
the  throne  of  self-government  is  already  prepared  to  be 
counted  and  not  weighed  as  a  political  factor. 

You  say  you  are  an  American  ?  Yes.  You  are  a  Chris- 
tian ?  Yes.  You  are  a  Republican  or  a  Democrat  ?  Yes. 
But  before  you  were  either  of  these  you  were  a  man,  dis- 
tinguishable from  every  man  who  ever  has  lived  or  will 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  491 

live,  a  bundle  of  passions  and  aspirations,  the  creature  of  cir- 
cumstances beset  by  an  army  of  conflicting  emotions ;  will- 
ing the  right  perhaps  and  doing  the  wrong,  but  holding  in 
your  own  hand  the  all-conquering  scepter  of  manhood,  the 
inalienable  right  of  individual  determination. 

If,  then,  the  political  status  of  the  independent  in  politics 
has  been  made  apparent  and  the  ethical  root  of  his  being 
correctly  set  forth,  it  may  be  in  point  to  consider  briefly  his 
genesis  and  development.  We  shall  remark  on  this  branch 
of  our  subject  that  the  Mugwump  as  a  factor  of  political 
action  is  contemporaneous  with  constitutional  government 
in  the  United  States.  It  is  true  that,  for  reasons  to  be  con- 
sidered hereafter,  his  development  as  an  important  and  dis- 
tinct element  of  more  or  less  organized  political  action  is 
comparatively  modern ;  but  men  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Mugwump  have  lived  and  inspired  all  human  history. 

A  contributor  to  the  Boston  Centinel,  who  dated  his  com- 
munication at  Hingham,  October  26,  1802,  stated  in  sub- 
stance the  Mugwump  platform  when  he  said  :  "  We  do  not 
make  much  ado  about  caucuses,  but  we  attend  our  meetings 
like  freemen  and  vote  from  the  honest  convictions  of  our 
consciences."  This  contributor  of  nearly  ninety  years  ago 
signed  his  communication  "  An  Independent  Elector,"  and 
no  one  since  has  more  concisely  stated  the  platform  of  the 
Mugwumps.  He  was  doubtless  one  of  many  of  his  kind 
who  continually  recognized  in  the  performance  of  his  pub- 
lic duties  the  necessity  of  rebelling  against  party  dictation. 

Why,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  has  not  the  Mugwump  sooner 
developed  as  a  distinct  political  entity  ?  Several  reasons  are 
obvious.  One  of  the  most  suggestive  from  an  evolutionary 
standpoint  is  the  familiar  agent  of  repression  by  an  unfavor- 
able environment.  An  old  primeval  forest  is  desolated  by 
a  fierce  conflagration,  and  out  of  the  charred  waste  of  black- 
ened stumps  and  herbage  there  arises  as  if  by  magic  a  new 
field  of  verdure,  and  with  the  new  state  of  vegetable  life 
there  appear  in  the  contest  for  survival  the  sprouting  stalks 
of  new  varieties  of  shrub  or  tree,  the  seeds  of  which  had 
been  for  many  years  biding  in  hidden  silence  their  new  en- 
vironment. By  similar  political  changes  has  the  oppor- 
tunity for  independent  political  action  been  provided. 

Consider  for  an  instant  the  essential  requirements  of  an 
independent  political  entity : 

First,  an  absence  of  all-absorbing  political  issues,  and  es- 


492  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

pecially  of  issues  enlisting  the  ethical  forces  of  men's  na- 
tures. 

Second,  a  population  sufficiently  large  in  number  to  make 
the  actual  marshaling  of  all  voters  in  armies  considerably 
difficult. 

Third,  a  dissemination  of  political  knowledge  among  so 
large  a  class  of  people  that  they  should  rely  with  some  de- 
gree of  confidence  upon  the  result  of  their  own  thinking. 

Fourth,  the  existence  of  a  leisure  class,  only  practicable  in 
a  wealthy  country,  who  should  have  time  as  well  as  inclina- 
tion to  devote  themselves  to  political  pursuits. 

Manifestly  these  conditions  did  not  obtain  during  the 
early  part  of  our  history.  Indeed,  it  has  only  been  by  the  com- 
paratively recent  advances  in  science  and  art  that  they  have 
been  made  practicable.  Sporadic  occasions  of  efficient  po- 
litical action  outside  the  parties,  or  by  partial  amalgamation, 
have  indeed  been  incident  to  all  party  action,  a  notable  in- 
stance occurring  in  1846  when  Robert  Peel  and  Richard 
Cobden,  entirely  outside  either  party  in  Parliament,  effected 
one  of  the  greatest  of  English  reforms — the  repeal  of  the 
corn  law.  But  neither  has  the  occasion  offered,  nor  have 
men  been  present  to  avail  of  it  to  any  considerable  organized 
extent,  until  in  recent  times. 

Two  great  questions  of  national  importance  and  involving 
ethical  issues  have  mainly  engaged  the  attention  of  our  voters 
from  the  birth  of  the  nation.  One,  the  question  of  national 
unity  as  distinguished  from  state  autonomy  ;  the  other,  the 
question  of  property  in  man.  The  first,  although  in  forms 
of  organic  law  proclaimed  at  the  beginning,  awaited  the  am- 
plification by  the  judiciary  department  of  the  Government 
under  the  Constitution,  which  may  be  said  not  to  have  de- 
veloped until  the  work  of  the  illustrious  Marshall  was  com- 
pleted in  1836.  The  second  grew  to  such  monstrous  pro- 
portions as  to  threaten  anew  the  life  of  the  nation,  and  was 
not  wholly  and  satisfactorily  established  until  within  the 
present  decade  it  had  been  demonstrated  that  the  party  long 
out  of  power  could  be  safely  and  profitably  intrusted  with 
the  administration  of  government. 

To-day,  therefore,  the  first  and  second  requirements — 
namely,  an  absence  of  absorbing  political  issues,  and  a  large 
population — may  be  justly  said  to  be  furnished  us,  for  it  is 
now  a  part  of  our  political  history  that  in  the  national  cam- 
paign of  1884  there  was  so  little  difference  between  the  offi- 
cial utterances  of  the  two  parties  on  the  only  issue  of  national 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  493 

polity  that  the  orators  of  each  side  spent  most  of  their  time 
on  the  stump  in  showing  that  their  candidate  was  really  stand- 
ing upon  the  platform  of  the  other  party ;  and  the  latest 
census  of  our  country  discloses  a  population  of  more  than 
sixty-five  millions. 

The  third  requirement  spoken  of — namely,  a  wide  dissemi- 
nation of  political  knowledge — may  be  said  to  be  fairly  met 
by  the  hundred-handed  press  of  to-day,  which  has  assumed 
with  great  success  the  role  of  censor,  instructor,  and  investi- 
gator of  our  national  as  well  as  our  domestic  affairs.  There 
is  more  knowledge,  as  well  as  something  else,  accumulated 
in  the  issue  of  any  Sunday  paper  of  to-day  than  was  stored  up 
in  all  the  monasteries  of  France  during  the  entire  lives  of  their 
votaries.  That  prince  of  Mugwumps,  Wendell  Phillips,  has 
pointedly  remarked  that  "what  gunpowder  did  for  war, 
the  printing  press  has  done  for  the  mind,  and  the  statesman 
is  no  longer  clad  in  the  steel  of  special  education,  but  every 
reading  man  is  his  judge,  every  thoughtful  man  the  country 
through,  who  makes  up  an  opinion,  is  his  jury  to  which  he 
answers,  and  the  tribunal  to  which  he  must  bow." 

If,  then,  these  new  conditions  do  really  obtain  as  an  inci- 
dent to  our  increase  as  a  nation  in  wealth,  population,  and 
education,  and  the  development  of  a  leisure  class  among  us, 
is  not  an  evolutionist  prepared  for  the  observation  that  with 
the  complexity  of  the  political  structure  there  arises  a  cor- 
responding complexity  in  the  political  function  ?  Indeed, 
it  is  Herbert  Spencer  who  reminds  us  in  his  Biology  that 
"  complexity  of  function  is  the  correlative  of  complexity  of 
structure." 

Are  we  not  then  prepared  to  observe  that  with  the  special- 
ization of  function  to  which  Mr.  Theodore  Eoosevelt  refers 
in  his  recent  admirable  Essays  on  Practical  Politics  (by 
which  he  means,  I  suppose,  the  calling  of  the  politician  as 
such)  we  have  arrived  at  a  period  when  it  should  become 
the  special  political  function  of  a  given  body  of  citizens  to 
hold  themselves  as  a  permanent  and  more  or  less  organized 
menace  to  the  abuse  of  the  special  function  of  the  profes- 
sional politician,  and  to  the  undue  supremacy  of  party  spirit 
—that  party  spirit  of  which  Washington  himself  said  :  "  A 
fire  not  to  be  quenched,  it  demands  a  uniform  vigilance  to 
prevent  its  bursting  into  a  flame,  lest  instead  of  warming  it 
should  consume  "  ? 

Before  defining  further,  however,  the  special  function  of 
the  Mugwump,  it  is  proper  to  observe  that  the  evil  of  party 


494  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

dogmatism  is  barely  touched  upon  when  it  is  considered 
with  relation  to  its  effect  upon  national  politics.  Given  an 
all-consuming  issue  of  national  concern,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  patriots  might  well  divide  into  armies  in  support 
of  that  issue  ;  but  that  the  membership  of  that  army  should 
continue  to  agree  upon  questions  affecting  the  state  polity, 
suggests  an  absurd  obeisance  of  the  individual  will,  and 
when  it  is  gravely  put  forth  as  a  test  of  party  loyalty  that 
the  same  persons  should  continue  to  agree  upon  lines  of 
municipal  policy,  the  absurdity  becomes  grotesque  and  the 
claim  of  the  party  organs  or  leaders  sublimely  ridiculous. 
Yet  such  is  the  party  claim  to-day.  Over  and  over  again  in 
a  neighboring  city  has  the  party,  which  is  fond  of  calling 
itself  the  great  moral  party,  proclaimed  it  of  greater  impor- 
tance that  its  voting  army  should  throw  its  ammunition 
away  on  a  hopeless  candidacy  of  one  of  its  own,  than  to  ele- 
vate to  power  and  usefulness  an  independent,  public-spirited 
citizen  of  the  opposite  party — so  callous  has  already  be- 
come the  party  conscience.  And  so  the  interests  of  a  great 
municipality  are  surrendered  year  by  year  to  the  keeping  of 
self-seeking  politicians,  for  fear  that  a  spirit  of  party  insub- 
ordination shall  be  fostered  in  the  rank  and  file. 

Nor  is  the  same  spirit  lacking  in  our  State  government. 
What  spectacle  can  be  more  disheartening  than  that  of  the 
highest  officers  in  the  foremost  State  of  the  Union  resorting 
to  downright  thievery  in  order  to  wreak  revenge  upon  their 
political  foes  for  depriving  them  (most  unjustly,  it  must  be 
admitted)  for  nearly  a  decade  of  proportionate  representa- 
tion in  the  State  Legislature  ? 

And  yet  there  is  one  thing  still  more  disheartening,  and 
that  is  the  elevation  to  a  place  in  the  highest  legal  tribunal 
of  the  State  of  one  who  stands,  by  his  own  confession,  in  the 
relation  of  particeps  criminis  to  the  monstrous  theft.  Nor 
has  this  blind  partisan  folly  the  slim  justification  of  party 
zeal.  For,  in  the  true  sense  of  a  divided  public  opinion  ex- 
pressing itself  through  party  channels,  these  are  not  the 
(dictates  of  wise  party  leadership ;  rather  they  are  the  man- 
dates of  cravens  who  by  adroit  manipulation  have  taken  to 
themselves  the  reins  of  party  power  and  are  driving  the 
party  chariot  in  the  courses  which  lead  to  their  own  shame- 
less competence. 

Let  us  not  be  deceived,  nor  fear  to  speak  the  truth  about 
it.  More  and  more  in  our  State  and  in  our  great  cities  poli- 
tics has  come  to  be  a  most  degrading  trade,  and  the  men 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  495 

who  wield  the  party  power  ply  their  infamous  traffic  to 
just  the  extent  which,  in  their  shrewd  judgment,  the  apathy 
of  their  good-natured  constituents  will  permit.  Occasionally 
they  overstep  the  mark,  and  then  the  sleepy  constituents 
gather  in  enthusiastic  conclave  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  or 
elsewhere,  and,  reminding  their  political  bosses  that  "  this 
is  really  too  bad,"  demand  the  repeal  of  some  specially  ob- 
noxious measure ;  and  the  legislators  hasten  to  do  their 
bidding,  in  confident  reliance  that  during  the  rush  of  busi- 
ness incident  to  adjournment  they  may  still  commit,  un- 
observed, their  particular  piece  of  robbery.  Meantime  the 
constituents,  having  performed  their  political  duties,  go 
solemnly  to  sleep,  and  wake  up  at  the  next  election  denounc- 
ing roundly  their  fellow-citizens  who  vote  anything  but  the 
straight  ticket. 

One  of  the  most  common  and  plausible  justifications  for 
party  dogmatism  is  the  sugar-coated  delusion  of  party  re- 
sponsibility. "  Turn  everybody  out  and  put  everybody  in, 
and  then  let  the  party  take  the  responsibility,"  is  the  cry 
often  heard.  And  so  this  plan  has  been  tried  for  genera- 
tions with  the  effect  of  constantly  decreasing  efficiency  in 
city  government,  so  that  sagacious  observers,  like  Lowell, 
are  heard  to  say  that  "  the  tricks  of  management  are  more 
and  more  superseding  the  science  of  government,"  and, 
again,  "  where  parties  are  once  formed,  those  questions,  the 
discussion  of  which  would  discipline  and  fortify  one's  minds, 
tend  more  and  more  to  pass  out  of  sight,  and  the  topics  that 
interest  their  prejudices  and  passions  to  become  more  ab- 
sorbing. " 

Now,  if  party  allegiance  meant,  as  it  ought  to  mean,  loyalty 
to  some  great  postulate  of  freedom,  it  would  deserve  to  and 
would  enlist  the  utmost  endeavor  of  all  its  adherents.  But 
what  is  it  more  to-day,  in  the  main,  than  abject  subser- 
viency to  the  political  fortunes  of  men  in  power  ?  What 
more  has  it  come  to  be  than  the  practical  question  of  which 
army  of  office-mongers  shall  control  after  the  next  election  ? 

Nor  is  the  baneful  influence  of  this  apparent  truth  so  im- 
portant in  its  effect  upon  the  voter  as  upon  the  career  of 
the  office-holder  himself.  Upon  him  it  too  often  exercises 
the  most  complete  domination.  To  it  he  is  expected,  at  the 
peril  of  his  political  existence,  to  sacrifice  everything.  If 
ne  withholds  honor,  integrity,  or  consistency,  he  is  taunted 
with  being  ungrateful  and  disloyal  to  those  men  who  have 
"  made  "  him,  and  is  threatened  with  political  destruction. 


496  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

What  more  lamentable  spectacle  can  be  contemplated 
than  the  career  of  a  well-known  local  politician  who  de- 
rived his  political  life  from  the  efforts  of  independent  men 
in  the  party  opposed  to  him,  and,  once  firmly  seated  in  the 
saddle,  repudiated  all  professions  of  subordination  of  party 
to  principle,  became  the  synonym  of  party  obsequiousness, 
honored  all  demands  of  the  political  bosses,  and,  in  the  short 
space  of  five  years,  had  so  bedraggled  a  promising  and  hope- 
ful reputation  for  political  probity  by  bending  the  knee  to 
Baal  that  thousands  of  voters  in  his  own  party  repudiated 
his  pretensions  to  political  preferment,  and  though  not  past 
the  middle  prime  of  life,  he  has  already  gone  into  lucrative 
but  dishonorable  political  retirement  ? 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  how  encouraging  is  the  specta- 
cle presented  by  another  public  man  among  us,  who,  in 
whatever  position  he  has  been  placed,  has  kept  a  true  alle- 
giance to  his  manhood,  refusing  the  honeyed  enticement  of 
political  preferment  and,  holding  high  above  all  possible 
honors  of  place  or  power  the  virgin  whiteness  of  his  reputa- 
tion, has  absolutely  and  with  an  upright,  honorable  carriage, 
walked  out  of  the  devious  paths  of  so-called  practical  poli- 
tics into  the  ever  green  slopes  of  scholastic  attainment  and 
promotion ! 

Now,  if  the  baneful  influence  of  party  spirit  can  produce 
such  diverse  effects  upon  men  of  reputed  honor,  intelli- 
gence, and  public  spirit,  how  demoralizing  must  be  its  effect 
upon  the  great  army  of  office-holders  who  owe  the  opportu- 
nity to  earn  their  livelihood  to  the  will  of  the  dispensers  of 
party  patronage  ! 

More  than  fifty  years  ago  Daniel  "Webster  said  of  this 
question  of  party  patronage  that  "  the  power  of  bestowing 
places  and  emoluments  creates  parties  not  upon  any  princi- 
ple or  any  measure,  but  upon  the  single  ground  of  personal 
interest.  Blind  devotion  to  party,  and  to  the  head  of  a 
party,  thus  takes  the  place  of  a  sentiment  of  generous  pa- 
triotism and  a  high  and  exalted  sense  of  public  duty."  And 
in  baneful  fulfillment  of  this  characterization  we  have  but 
recently  witnessed  the  determined  and  largely  triumphant 
stand  taken  at  first  by  Independents  in  politics,  and  subse- 
quently adopted  by  the  parties  themselves,  against  the  posi- 
tion that  party  fealty  was  the  only  essential  requirement  for 
political  place. 

The  establishment  of  so  large  a  portion  of  our  civil  list 
upon  lines  of  comparatively  independent  footing  has  largely 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  497 

contributed  to  the  practicability  of  independent  political 
action,  and  constitutes  an  important  element  in  the  changed 
environment  which  makes  the  Mugwump  possible. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  underrate  the  numbers 
and  influence  of  the  Mugwump.  In  the  campaign  of  1884 
it  was  noticeable  that  while  the  party  organs  could  scarcely 
detect  the  existence  of  any  considerable  body  of  Mugwumps 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  there  was  an  actual  personal  en- 
rollment of  fifty  thousand  bolters  from  the  Kepublican  party 
in  the  possession  of  the  managers  of  the  independent  revolt. 
And  in  the  election  for  the  mayoralty  which  took  place 
in  this  city  in  1885  more  than  thirteen  thousand  voters  left 
their  party  lines  to  vote  under  conditions  which  assured  to 
them  no  other  success  at  the  polls  than  their  enumeration 
as  men  who  disdained  to  follow  their  party  in  what  in  their 
judgment  were  policies  prejudicial  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  city.  Surely  the  tyranny  of  no  party  majority  can  be 
very  dangerous  with  so  large  a  body  of  independent  voters 
ready  to  administer  a  prompt  rebuke  to  its  pretensions. 

But  there  is  one  period  in  the  political  calendar  when  the 
sweetness  and  light  of  the  Mugwump,  and  his  many  civic 
virtues,  arrest  the  attention  of  even  the  party  organ,  and 
that  is  during  the  three  weeks  or  more  immediately  pre- 
ceding election.  It  is  true  that  this  recognition  is  most 
profusely  proclaimed  by  organs  of  the  minority  party.  When 
especially  desirous  to  lift  into  power,  in  the  teeth  of  a  large 
majority  on  the  other  side,  some  especial  "favorite  son," 
their  readers  are  somewhat  surprised  to  learn  that  "  there 
are  certain  honest  men  belonging  to  the  majority  party  who 
have  the  courage  of  their  convictions,  and  who  it  is  cur- 
rently reported  have  announced  their  determination  not  to 
tamely  submit  to  the  behest  of  the  party,"  and  straightway 
these  worthy  gentlemen  are  exhorted  to  "  follow  the  dictates 
of  patriotism  and  support  the  candidate  of  the  minority 
upon  the  broad  ground  of  the  public  interest." 

But  however  superlative  may  be  the  encomiums  bestowed 
upon  the  poor  Mugwump  just  before  election,  when  the  bal- 
lots are  all  counted  and  the  result  of  his  fine  work  is  apparent, 
he  becomes  the  Pariah  of  local  politics  against  whom  every 
man's  hand  is  raised.  The  party  whose  candidates  he  has 
defeated  denounces  him  roundly  as  a  traitor  to  the  cause, 
and  the  party  which  has  availed  itself  of  his  vote  declines 
to  recognize  his  existence,  but  speaks  in  its  double-leaded 
leader,  with  a  rooster  at  the  head  of  the  column,  of  the 


498  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

"  growing  prominence  of  Republican  (or  Democratic,  as  the 
case  may  be)  principles  in  the  ninety-ninth  congressional 
district." 

But  let  us  now  return  to  examine  briefly  the  function  of 
the  independent  voter.  Can  it  be  reasonably  denied  that 
in  a  community  such  as  this  city,  where  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  votes  are  cast  at  each  election,  it  is 
of  the  greatest  value  to  have  existing,  and  known  by  both 
sets  of  party  leaders  to  so  exist,  a  large  body  of  citizens 
whose  position  outside  both  parties  precludes  their  acting 
from  motives  of  personal  aggrandizement  ?  Is  not  the  ex- 
istence of  such  a  body  of  men  a  constant  menace  to  party 
leaders  against  imposing  upon  voters  either  candidates  or 
policies  of  an  especially  vicious  character  ?  And  may  it  not 
be  reasonably  expected  that  such  a  body  of  voters  may  come 
in  time  to  be  the  center  of  useful  political  education  whence 
may  come  knowledge  and  estimates  concerning  men  and 
public  affairs  untainted  by  party  bias  and  personal  greed  ? 

Can  we  hope  to  have  our  children  intelligently  cognizant 
of  current  political  events  when  they  find  that  even  the 
facts  in  favor  of  or  against  either  party  are  suppressed  or 
published  by  the  party  organ  accordingly  as  this  or  the 
other  course  will  promote  the  party  cause  ? 

It  is  the  function  and  the  duty  of  the  Mugwump  to  approach 
the  consideration  of  all  public  questions  from  the  stand- 
point of  public  interest,  and  the  value  of  his  independent 
position  is,  or  ought  to  be,  that  he  can  do  this  with  absolute 
freedom  from  entangling  alliances.  The  true  Mugwump  is 
always  found  on  the  registry  list.  He  is  not  indifferent  to, 
but  profoundly  interested  in,  every  public  question.  He  is 
an  industrious  observer  of  the  career  of  public  men  and  the 
action  of  State  and  municipal  legislatures.  He  reads  with 
care  the  organs  of  both  parties  and  then  searches  assiduously 
for  the  truth  elsewhere.  He  has  a  reason  for  the  faith 
that  is  within  him,  and  is  never  afraid  or  ashamed  to  state 
it.  He  has  no  private  hiding-places  in  which  certain  of  his 
convictions  must  be  stowed  away  when  influential  party 
leaders  appear.  He  gives  no  prizes  to  target  excursions, 
does  not  present  to  picnic  organizations  bright  banners  in- 
scribed with  his  own  name ;  he  carries  about  him  no  rail- 
road passes,  and  is  free  to  return  or  not,  as  he  pleases,  all 
tickets  to  charitable  balls.  He  is  owned  by  nobody  but  him- 
self ;  he  owns  nobody  but  himself ;  he  sometimes  hears  him- 
self referred  to  as  a  crank,  but  even  that  does  not  frighten 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  499 

him.  He  is  the  recipient  of  most  soothing  euphemisms  be- 
fore election  and  the  most  scathing  denunciations  after 
election.  Nevertheless,  he  talks  plain  Quaker  talk  about 
the  candidate,  talks  boldly  about  the  tax-rate,  calls  attention 
to  the  weakness  of  each  party  platform  in  the  very  heat  of 
the  campaign,  and  is  allowed  to  vote  exactly  as  he  pleases 
on  election  day,  and  he  is  also  sure  to  vote. 

The  Mugwump  has  also  a  most  abiding  confidence  in  the 
greatness  of  his  country. 

If  in  what  has  already  been  said  it  has  been  necessary  to 
look  plainly  in  the  face  certain  political  evils,  let  it  not  for 
a  moment  be  suspected  that  this  has  been  done  because 
there  were  not  apparent  to  the  Mugwump  the  great  under- 
lying potentialities  of  patriotism  which  render  utterly  im- 
possible the  destruction  or  even  serious  impairment  of  our 
great  republican  nationality. 

The  evils  complained  of  are,  after  all,  but  the  superficial 
excrescences  which  evidence  the  speedy  and  prodigious  ex- 
pansion of  our  new  commonwealth.  It  is  just  because  of 
our  faith  in  the  inviolable  patriotism  of  the  plain  people 
that  we  look  for  the  development  and  maintenance  of  the 
Independent  in  politics  as  at  once  the  evidence  and  prophecy 
of  better  rulers  and  a  better  citizenship.  Ignorant  vice  and 
polished  selfishness  may  at  times  climb  to  the  high  places 
of  power,  but  all  about  them,  if  they  will  but  look,  they  are 
compelled  to  witness  the  agencies  of  their  own  dethrone- 
ment. 

If  it  be  true,  as  I  believe  it  is,  that  no  permanent  civiliza- 
tion can  rise  higher  than  the  standard  of  its  average  citizen, 
so  also  is  it  sure  that  no  largess  of  power  can  be  long  be- 
stowed on  a  plane  of  action  lower  than  the  intelligence  and 
conscience  of  its  average  manhood. 

I  have  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  paper  that  it  was  not 
my  purpose  to  advise  any  young  man  against  alliance  with 
either  of  the  great  parties.  I  now  repeat  the  assertion.  I 
do  not  forget  that  wise  remark  of  Jefferson's  that  "  it  is  the 
sum  of  individual  knowledge  which  is  to  make  up  the  whole 
truth."  If  the  mistakes  of  genius  are  often  overshadowing, 
how  does  humility  become  the  utterance  of  those  of  us  who 
are  but  walking  the  ordinary  plane  of  citizenship ! 

What  I  do  insist  upon  is  that  in  the  hot  pursuit  of 
party  aims,  and  facing  the  treacherous  temptations  of  per- 
sonal ambition,  while  you  may  place  your  private  judgment 
in  the  scales  of  your  political  importance  and  preferment, 


500  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

you  shall  unswervingly  retain  within  your  own  control  the 
immaculate  pearl  of  your  private  conscience.  Surrender  it, 
I  beg  of  you,  to  no  exigency  of  party ;  bear  it  clear  and  high 
above  all  political  turmoil,  keep  it  as  Philip  Sydney  kept 
his  undaunted  humanity,  to  the  end,  and  be  prepared,  if 
need  be,  at  any  moment  to  hold  steadfast  to  your  convic- 
tions upon  questions  of  right  and  wrong,  even  if  they  are 
cherished  by  no  single  person  other  than  yourself. 

So,  holding  yourself  within  the  lines  of  party  organiza- 
tion, you  shall  make  for  yourself  and  your  posterity  an  hon- 
orable repute. 

But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  you  shall  find  it  better  suited 
to  your  views  of  political  action  to  stand  outside  the  popu- 
lar current  of  politics,  do  not,  I  beg  of  you,  be  dismayed  by 
the  paucity  of  numbers,  nor  fear  that  your  voice  and  vote 
will  be  lost.  Look  back  along  the  line  of  the  world's  his- 
tory and  say  if  you  be  not  standing  on  the  same  spot 
where,  during  all  the  centuries,  the  men  whose  memories 
you  most  reverently  cherish  have  stood.  Has  not  the  van- 
tage ground  of  genius  ever  been  outside  the  camp  of  throng- 
ing multitudes  ?  Have  not  the  leaders  of  all  progress  been 
the  loud  protestants  of  their  generation?  Do  not  the  men 
of  high  example  who  are  worthy  the  completest  imitation  of 
men  of  earnest  thought  and  sincere  desire  bear  on  their 
frontlets  the  scars  of  accusations  overcome  and  derision 
baffled? 

The  field  is  clear  outside,  the  atmosphere  unmixed  with 
doubts,  the  limbs  unshackled.  There  are  no  mental  limita- 
tions or  reservations ;  there  is  but  one  master — the  truth ; 
there  is  but  one  goal — the  truth ;  there  is  but  one  weapon 
— the  truth ;  and  this  is  the  master  which  has  led,  the  goal 
which  has  inspired,  and  the  weapon  which  has  won  the 
priceless  victories  of  all  the  ages.  Prudence,  conservatism, 
independence,  have  been  respectively  the  root,  the  stalk, 
and  the  flower  of  all  political  evolution. 

It  is  a  great  thing  for  one  sincerely  inspired  by  fealty  to 
party  to  say  "  I  am  a  Democrat,"  or  "  I  am  a  ^Republican  " ; 
it  is  a  greater  thing  for  one  thrilling  with  patriotic  devotion 
to  his  country  to  say  "  I  am  an  American  "  ;  but  greatest  of 
all  is  it  for  one,  passing  beyond  the  limitations  alike  of 
party  and  of  country,  and  taking  into  his  unfettered  vision 
the  entire  human  race,  to  say  "  I  am  a  man." 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  501 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  ROBERT  W.  TAYLER  : 

I  have  to  thank  the  other  Mr.  Taylor  for  having  refuted  the  old 
adage  that  it  takes  nine  of  us  to  make  a  man.  In  that  he  needs  no 
assistance.  I  feel  like  saying  to  him  something  like  what  was  said  to 
Paul  on  a  memorable  occasion :  Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a 
Mugwump — almost,  but  not  quite.  And  therein  lies  the  infirmity  of 
the  Mugwump — in  failing  to  do  all  that  which,  with  the  powers  given 
him,  he  might  do.  Failing  to  accomplish  all  that  you  can  is  a  sin,  no 
less  than  the  failure  to  accomplish  anything.  I  can  find  no  fault  with 
my  predecessor's  definition  of  the  Independent  in  politics.  I  under- 
stand him  to  be  one  who  refuses  to  join  with  any  political  party,  but 
at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances  acts  as  a  free  lance.  He  sus- 
tains the  same  relation  to  the  political  army  as  the  guerrilla  to  forces  in 
actual  warfare.  When  he  finds  he  can  not  accomplish  his  end  in  the 
space  between  the  two  parties,  he  allies  himself  temporarily  with  one 
or  the  other,  usually  with  that  which,  in  his  judgment,  has  the  fewest 
fixed  principles.  I  object  to  the  Independent,  not  as  a  partisan,  but 
as  a  citizen— as  one  who  desires  to  see  the  greatest  good  accomplished 
for  the  greatest  number.  I  protest  against  the  Mugwump  because  he 
either  proceeds  from  or  tends  toward  Phariseeism.  It  is  a  condition 
of  mind  and  not  of  the  body-politic  which  produces  the  Mugwump. 
The  desire  to  be  alone  proceeds  from  an  unsocial  disposition.  He  is 
unlike  his  fellows  ;  he  knows  it ;  and  I  do  not  know  as  he  is  to  blame 
for  thanking  God  that  he  is  so.  He  stands  by  himself  and  says :  "  I 
am  better  than  the  parties ;  my  judgment  is  better  than  the  combined 
judgment  of  men,"  and  therefore  I  say  he  either  comes  out  of  Phari- 
seeism or  is  led  into  it.  He  shears  himself  of  his  usefulness  by  this 
isolation,  and  the  public  loses  confidence  in  the  measures  he  pro- 
poses. 

Again,  he  either  proceeds  from  or  leads  into  a  pessimistic  view  of 
life  and  society.  I  do  not  believe  the  lecturer  is  naturally  an  Inde- 
pendent ;  he  takes  too  kindly  a  view  of  the  tendencies  of  the  times. 
He  does  not  breathe  the  spirit  of  Lowell  in  his  last  years.  When  we 
consider  that  for  nearly  his  entire  life  each  morning  was  brighter  and 
more  beautiful  to  him  than  the  one  before,  the  flowers  were  sweeter, 
and  the  days  were  fuller  of  a  large  and  hopeful  promise  for  mankind, 
that  life  was  richer  and  fuller  as  the  years  rolled  by,  and  set  over 


502  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

against  this  supreme  fact  of  his  earlier  years  the  disposition  of  the 
man  as  revealed  in  the  address  on  "  The  Independent  in  Politics,"  who 
saw  nothing  in  society  or  politics  that  was  hopeful,  who  said :  "  It  is 
admitted  on  all  hands  that  matters  have  been  growing  worse  for 
twenty  years,  as  it  is  the  nature  of  evil  to  do  " — the  pessimistic  tend- 
ency of  his  mind  at  this  time  is  manifest.  I  am  not  going  to  discuss 
the  question  whether  things  are  actually  growing  better  or  worse. 
Any  one  with  his  eyes  open  who  declares  that  in  society  or  politics  the 
moral  tone  has  not  risen  in  the  last  twenty  years  has  fitted  himself 
for  the  exclusive  fellowship  of  the  Mugwumps. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  evil  does  not  grow ;  but  Lowell  would 
not  have  used  the  expression  I  have  quoted  unless  he  meant  just  what 
he  said.  If  he  believed  that  the  growth  of  good  was  greater  than  the 
growth  of  evil,  he  would  have  qualified  his  statement.  He  meant  that 
things  were  going  down,  that  the  moral  tone  of  society  had  lowered. 
He  said  that  the  newspapers  referred  to  the  buying  of  votes  in  a  jocu- 
lar manner  without  attempting  to  rebuke  or  break  up  the  practice.  I 
think,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  rare  to  find  anything  in  the  press  of  this 
country  but  declarations  of  the  very  highest  doctrine  relating  to  the 
right  of  suffrage. 

I  object  to  the  Independent  in  politics  because  he  isn't  as  useful  out 
of  the  party  as  he  might  be  in.  It  has  been  declared  this  evening  with 
great  plausibility  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  the  period  of  his  greatest 
power,  was  an  Independent.  Nevertheless,  he  was  undoubtedly  always  a 
Republican,  acting  with  his  party.  If  he  accomplished  anything  by  his 
independence,  he  accomplished  it  as  a  Republican,  and  would  have  been 
powerless  to  accomplish  it  otherwise.  Our  last  President  of  the  United 
States  was  a  man  who,  before  his  election,  had  not  given  great  atten- 
tion to  national  questions ;  but  he  was  honest,  and  when  he  saw  the 
right  he  endeavored  to  do  it.  His  party  had  been  going  on  with  un- 
certain tread,  but  because  he  was  in  the  party  he  formulated  a  doc- 
trine of  taxation  and  revenue  for  it ;  and  because  of  him,  the  party  to- 
day stands  upon  its  feet  in  advocacy  of  a  definite  principle.  The  In- 
dependent talks,  but  the  party  man  acts.  Phillips  thundered,  but 
Greeley  accomplished.  Garrison  dared,  but  Lincoln  did.  The  Inde- 
pendent in  politics  must  be  so  not  only  in  thought  but  in  act.  The 
field  of  thought  is  boundless,  but  the  field  of  action  is  limited  by  the 
necessities  of  life.  Very  eloquently  indeed  did  the  gentleman  close 
his  address,  telling  us  how  through  all  time  men  of  genius  have  acted 
independently  and  left  their  mark ;  but  that  is  not  the  point.  The 
scientist  does  not  join  himself  to  a  certain  school  and  say  "  I  will  al- 
ways belong  to  it " ;  his  field  of  thought  and  experiment  is  absolutely  un- 
limited. But  when  it  comes  to  questions  of  politics  and  government  you 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  503 

are  in  a  limited  field.  Every  man  interested  must  do  something.  What  I 
Act,  or  fajl  to  act  ?  Parties  were  defined  to-night  with  great  force  and 
accuracy.  Every  public  measure  must  have  one  party  in  its  favor 
and  another  against  it.  There  never  can  be  more  than  two  parties  on 
living,  practical  issues.  One  of  two  ways  every  man  must  take,  or 
he  is  powerless,  and  fails  in  his  duty  to  himself  and  to  society.  He 
may  take  one  to-day  and  another  to-morrow.  If  he  takes  one  course 
to-day  because  a  certain  principle  is  at  issue,  that  leads  to  other  and 
kindred  questions,  and  in  the  nature  of  things  he  is  likely  to  keep 
with  his  chosen  comrades.  If  reflection  leads  him  to  change  his  views, 
however,  he  has  a  right  to  change  his  party  allegiance  ;  I  never  heard 
any  one  question  the  right  to  leave  one  party  and  go  to  the  other. 

DR.  LEWIS  Gr.  JANES: 

Emerson  declared  that  in  religious  development  the  tendency  of  a 
higher  culture  and  civilization  is  to  create  churches  of  one  and 
churches  of  two.  According  to  Herbert  Spencer,  this  is  also  the  tend- 
ency of  advancing  evolution  in  politics.  Differentiation  and  integra- 
tion is  the  law  here  as  in  the  unfolding  of  the  physical  universe.  The 
ideal  is  not  individual  independence  as  a  condition  of  selfish  isolation 
from  one's  fellows,  but  as  a  vantage  ground  for  a  higher  influence  and 
more  perfect  voluntary  co-operation.  Political  independence,  absolute 
and  complete,  is  therefore  the  goal  of  political  evolution.  A  party — 
like  government  itself,  like  all  organizations — is  a  temporary  thing ;  a 
thing  to  be  used  by  the  individual  as  a  tool  for  working  out  certain 
desirable  ends,  so  long  as  it  is  sharp  and  adapted  to  the  work ;  but 
when  it  is  outworn  or  dulled  it  should  be  set  aside,  and  another  taken 
up.  The  last  speaker  referred  to  the  Independent  as  if  he  refused  to 
act  with  any  political  party.  This  is  not  the  fact,  however.  The 
political  Independent  does  not  vote  in  the  air,  does  not  leave  one  party 
to  form  a  third,  but  always  throws  his  influence  with  that  party  which 
to  him  seems  to  represent  the  truest  principles  upon  the  questions 
immediately  at  issue.  This,  indeed,  was  the  avowed  reason  of  the 
grievance  of  our  Republican  friends  against  the  Mugwumps  of  1884 — 
not  that  they  withdrew  from  all  party  connection  in  selfish  isolation, 
but  that  they  threw  their  influence  and  votes  solidly  for  the  Demo- 
cratic party. 

The  word  "  Phariseeism,"  as  used  by  our  friends  to  indicate  the 
characteristics  of  political  independency,  shows  that  they  are  not  suf- 
ficiently familiar  with  religious  history  to  deal  safely  with  its  phrase- 
ology and  nomenclature.  Who  was  the  Pharisee  of  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago  *?  Was  he  a  Mugwump,  or  Gome-outer  $  Not  at  all.  The 
Pharisee  was  the  very  incarnation  of  party  spirit.  He  claimed,  indeed, 


504  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

to  be  the  pre-eminent  representative  of  the  party  of  "  great  moral 
ideas  "  of  his  time.  The  founder  of  Christianity,  on  the  contrary,  was 
the  truest  Independent  that  the  world  ever  saw.  He  proclaimed  the 
direct  relation  of  the  individual  soul  to  the  great  questions  of  ethics 
and  religion.  He  founded  no  new  sect,  but  gathered  around  him  a 
little  company  of  men  and  women  who  dared  to  disregard  the  conven- 
tionalisms of  thought  and  life,  and,  from  the  vantage  ground  of  personal 
independence,  to  call  their  fellow-men  to  a  higher  obedience  to  the 
moral  law.  Such  are  the  people,  always  and  everywhere,  who  have 
exercised  a  supreme  influence  on  men  and  affairs.  Search  through  the 
ages,  in  the  field  of  politics  or  of  religion,  and  you  will  find  that  the 
men  of  influence,  the  men  who  have  done  the  highest  things  for 
humanity,  were  Independents — not  subservient  followers  of  party  or  of 
sect.  The  true  political  Independent  is  not  one  who  "  votes  in  the 
air,"  not  the  political  recluse,  but  the  man  who  always  obeys  his  con- 
science, whether  accused  of  inconsistency  or  not.  "  A  foolish  con- 
sistency," he  believes,  with  Emerson,  "  is  the  hob-goblin  of  little  minds." 
I  believe  the  growth  of  human  society  in  the  future  is  to  be  in  the 
direction  of  the  political  and  religious  independence  of  the  individual, 
and  the  voluntary  and  intelligent  co-operation  of  all  for  great  and 
beneficent  ends. 

ME.  WALTER  S.  LOGAN  : 

The  eloquent  speaker  of  the  evening  has  expounded  the  doctrines 
and  opinions  which  he  has  exemplified  in  his  life  and  in  [his  conduct 
throughout  his  political  career.  His  preaching  and  practice  agree. 
But  the  charm  of  these  meetings  is  in  the  discussion,  where  both  sides 
are  presented.  To-night  I  propose  to  speak  as  a  party  man — not  with- 
out limitations,  for  I  have  been  something  of  an  Independent  myself. 
I  am  a  member  of  the  Reform  Club,  was  one  of  its  founders,  and  am 
proud  of  its  work.  I  listened  to  the  speech  of  Mr.  Lowell,  referred  to 
by  the  gentleman  who  opened  this  discussion,  and  I  did  not  see  in  it 
any  indication  of  pessimism  or  the  decay  of  his  great  powers ;  but  I 
recognized  his  courage  in  leaving  a  party  which  had  been  great  but 
was  becoming  corrupt,  as  the  crowning  act  of  a  great  career.  It  is 
true  that  the  grandest  characters  on  the  world's  stage,  whose  sublime 
courage  and  magnificent  ability  entitle  them  to  the  respect  of  all  man- 
kind, were  Independents.  The  early  Abolitionists  were  among  them  ; 
the  later  Mugwumps  are  among  them,  as  fearless  and  as  patriotic  as 
any  men  that  ever  breathed ;  and  yet,  much  as  I  love  the  men  and 
admire  their  characters,  I  am  not  in  full  sympathy  with  their  methods. 
Their  courage  is  often  wasted.  They  would  accomplish  more  if  their 
valor  were  tempered  with  discretion.  We  owe  abolition  to  Lincoln, 


The  Independent  in  Politics.  505 

not  to  Garrison  and  Phillips.  The  trouble  with  the  Independent  is 
that  he  is  too  self-sufficient.  He  is  a  sort  of  pious  freebooter — a 
modern  Don  Quixote,  who,  however,  usually  attacks  real  giants  and 
not  windmills.  But  while  he  gets  undying  glory,  the  other  side 
usually  gets  elected.  I  believe,  therefore,  in  Party,  but  I  do  not  wor- 
ship at  its  shrine.  I  appreciate  its  defects,  and  would  have  it  better. 
But  when  I  have  a  tree  to  cut  down  I  use  the  best  axe  I  have  at  hand, 
and  do  not  stop  to  apply  the  differential  and  integral  calculus  to  the 
curve  of  its  blade.  The  Eepublican  party  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
by  no  means  an  ideal  party,  but,  with  all  its  faults,  Lincoln  led  it  to  vic- 
tory. If  he  was  an  Independent,  where  shall  we  look  for  a  great  parti- 
san f  The  democratic  party  of  Grover  Cleveland,  was  by  no  means  per- 
fect. Some  of  its  methods  we  could  not  accept,  but  he  organized  it 
for  victory,  and  accomplished  more  with  it  in  four  years  than  would 
have  been  accomplished  by  an  independent  movement  in  a  century. 
The  Independent  of  nineteen  hundred  years  ago  did  not  spread  Chris- 
tianity over  the  world  until  a  Christian  party  was  formed,  and  its 
triumph  is  a  triumph  of  organization  and  not  of  independency. 
Organization  and  co-operation  mean  success.  Independence  means  act- 
ing alone,  and  this  means  failure.  The  age  we  live  in  is  opposed  to  in- 
dependency. We  are  dependent  on  others  for  all  we  have— for  life  itself. 
We  are  not  living  now  in  the  kind  of  world  we  had  even  fifty  years 
ago.  In  the  era  of  the  Abolition  movement  men  lived  in  the  country, 
raised  their  own  food,  made  their  own  clothes,  and  did  not  rely  on 
others  for  help.  Now  we  live  in  cities,  manufactures  are  divided  up 
in  many  hands,  all  occupations  are  specialized,  and  every  man  is  de- 
pendent on  his  fellows  for  a  living.  A  Mugwump  in  the  physical 
world  would  starve  in  a  week.  We  can  not  set  up  an  arbitrary 
standard  of  ethics  for  ourselves  any  more  than  we  can  feed  ourselves 
without  relying  on  the  help  of  others.  We  can  not  stand  up  erect 
with  forty  thousand  people  leaning  against  us,  any  more  than  we  can 
walk  up  Broadway  at  mid-day  without  turning  to  the  right  or  to  the 
left.  The  organization  may  not  be  as  good  as  we  should  like,  but  it 
isn't  as  bad  as  the  speaker  has  painted  it.  Do  not  be  too  independent. 
It  is  as  bad  to  lean  backward  as  forward.  The  kick  of  a  gun  is 
sometimes  quite  as  deadly  as  its  bullet.  Be  content  to  use  the  old 
tools  till  you  can  get  new  ones.  Keep  in  advance  of  the  army,  if  you 
will,  but  do  not  get  out  of  sight  of  its  serried  columns,  or  you  will  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  common  enemy. 

MR.  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR,  in  reply :  I  have  been  so  kindly  dealt  with  that 
there  is  little  occasion  for  reply ;  but  I  can  not  help  saying  one  or  two 
things.  My  friend  and  namesake  carried  us  back  to  Paul  and  Agrippa, 


506  The  Independent  in  Politics. 

and  admitted  that  he  was  "  almost  persuaded  "  to  be  a  Mugwump. 
You  will  remember  that  it  was  Christianity  to  which  Agrippa  was 
"  almost  persuaded,"  and  it  was  the  greatest  mistake  of  his  life  that 
he  didn't  allow  Paul  wholly  to  persuade  him.  I  told  you  that  our 
critics  would  call  us  various  pet  names.  My  friend  and  namesake  in- 
dulged in  a  few,  such  as  "  Pharisee,"  and  "  guerrilla,"  and  finally  he 
ended  with  a  doleful  view  of  our  pessimism.  The  fact  shows  that 
instead  of  having  no  influence,  we  are  doing  what  we  are  trying  to  do, 
and  making  it  very  lively  for  the  "  regular  army."  I  was  sorry  when 
my  friend  and  brother  and  namesake  got  so  sad  over  Mr.  Lowell,  when 
he  delivered  the  noble  address  which  will  live  after  his  poetry  is  dead. 
He  said  he  had  to  appeal  from  it.  Well,  the  Republican  party  had  to 
appeal  from  all  its  great  men  during  the  Elaine  and  Cleveland  cam- 
paign. Its  chief  men  stayed  in  the  party  when  the  party  stood  for  prin- 
ciple. When  the  principle  went  out  the  men  went  out.  After  saying 
that  the  Independent  could  accomplish  more  in  a  party  than  out  of  it, 
Mr.  Logan  instanced  Grover  Cleveland.  But  his  nomination  was 
forced  and  his  election  achieved  by  the  Mugwump.  The  Democratic 
party  didn't  dare  to  nominate  any  one  else.  The  man  they  now  want 
to  nominate  is  David  B.  Hill,  and  he  is  the  man  whom  the  Independ- 
ents will  not  let  them  nominate.  It  was  said  that  a  Mugwump  would 
starve  in  a  week  if  left  alone.  What  really  troubles  our  friends  is 
that  we  don't  starve,  but  live  and  work  and  vote,  and  are  on  hand  to 
annoy  them.  If  any  man  desires  to  join  a  political  party  he  should 
be  at  liberty  to  do  so.  If  he  prefers  not  to  be  labeled  with  any  party 
name,  he  should  be  permitted  to  stand  outside  with  all  the  privileges 
of  citizenship  which  are  accorded  to  the  members  of  political  organiza- 
tions. The  Independent  stands  for  the  right  of  private  judgment  in 
political  affairs,  and  he  will  continue  so  to  stand  until  his  position  is 
recognized  and  respected. 


MORAL 
QUESTIONS  IN  POLITICS 


BY 

JOHN  C.  KIMBALL 

AUTHOR  OF  EVOLUTION  OF  ARMS  AND  ARMOR 
ZOOLOGY  AS  RELATED  TO  EVOLUTION,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Spencer's  Justice,  Principles  of  Sociology  and  Social  Statics ;  Ward's 
Social  Dynamics ;  Mill  On  Liberty ;  Smith's  Liberty  and  Liberalism  ; 
Fitz-James  Stephen's  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity;  Mulford's 
The  Nation ;  Emerson's  Essay  on  Politics  ;  Lieber's  Political  Ethics ; 
Garrison's  Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  ;  Sumner's  Speeches  on  the 
Slavery  Question ;  Wendell  Phillips's  Speeches,  and  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Oration ;  George  Q.  Cannon's  Speeches  on  Mormonism ;  Trial  of  the 
Chicago  Anarchists;  Iles's  The  Liquor  Question  in  Politics;  Fernald's 
Economics  of  Prohibition ;  Oswald's  The  Poison  Problem ;  Pitman's 
Alcohol  and  the  State ;  Ellis's  The  Criminal ;  Ryland's  Crime,  its  Cause 
and  its  Remedy ;  Tallack's  Penological  and  Preventive  Principles. 


MORAL  QUESTIONS  IN  POLITICS, 

AS  RELATED   TO    THE   OTHER  METHODS  OF  THEIR 
TREATMENT. 

BY  JOHN  C.  KIMBALL. 
THE  NEW  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

WHILE  exploring  with  a  party  of  friends  several  years  ago 
one  of  the  many  crab-like  arms  with  which  Puget  Sound 
crawls  back  from  the  sea  up  into  the  land,  our  boat  anchored 
for  the  afternoon  in  a  picturesque  spot  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Olympic  mountains  to  allow  the  amateur  artists  on 
board — mostly  ladies — to  make  a  sketch  of  its  beautiful  scen- 
ery. Suddenly  the  silence  of  lead-pencils,  which  had  been 
reigning  supreme  for  an  hour  or  more,  was  broken  by  the 
horrified  exclamation  of  a  feminine  voice,  "  Oh !  oh  !  oh ! 
we  are  all  adrift ! "  Its  occasion  was  the  tide,  which,  up 
there  amid  the  innumerable  inlets  it  has  to  visit,  often  gets 
bewildered  and  loses  all  sense  of  its  obligations  to  the  moon, 
sometimes  piling  itself  up  twenty-four  feet  at  once,  some- 
times rising  or  falling  six  hours  and  calling  that  a  day's 
work,  and  sometimes  running  so  long  in  one  direction  that, 
like  a  sentence  many-phrased,  it  seems  to  have  lost  all  con- 
nection with  its  starting  point  —  the  tide  unexpectedly 
turned,  that  was  bearing  our  boat  its  cable's  length  the 
other  way  from  its  anchor.  On  coming  to  a  stand  again, 
which  it  did  in  a  moment  or  two,  the  scene  we  had  been 
sketching,  though  itself  the  same  as  at  first,  was,  in  the 
aspect  it  presented  to  us,  an  almost  entirely  different  thing. 
The  white  man's  cabin,  the  Indian's  tent,  and  the  dog's 
humble  kennel,  before  wide  apart,  were  now  in  exact  range 
with  each  other.  The  houses  and  hewn  logs  had  made  a 
complete  swap  in  their  visible  sides  and  ends.  A  beautiful 
white  cataract,  concealed  before  in  all  except  its  music,  had 
come  plainly  into  sight ;  and  even  the  great  snow-peaked 
mountains,  immovable  as  they  were  at  their  granite  bases, 
were  parallaxed  against  a  stretch  of  blue  sky  quite  different 
from  the  cloudy  one  against  which  at  first  they  had  seemed 
to  lean.  Most  of  the  artists,  recognizing  the  changed  per- 

(509) 


510  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

spective,  threw  their  old  sketches  aside  and  began  wholly 
new  ones  from  their  new  point  of  view.  But  some,  hating 
to  lose  their  work,  went  on  and  finished  out  what  they  had 
begun,  a  part  by  drawing  the  uncompleted  things  as  they 
remembered  them  to  have  looked,  and  others  by  simply 
adding  them  on  as  they  now  appeared.  At  the  close  of  the 
afternoon  we  organized  an  extempore  art  exhibition.  The 
wholly  new  pictures,  though  somewhat  hasty,  were  all  well 
enough.  But  the  others !  Besides  the  mistakes  of  memory 
and  the  ludicrous  results  which  had  arisen  from  the  mixing 
up  of  the  two  perspectives — the  houses  and  logs  with  both 
ends  visible,  and  the  dog,  the  Indian,  and  the  white  man 
each  with  a  double  background — they  all  had  a  horrified 
jerk  of  the  pencil  where  the  exclamation  "  We're  adrift ! " 
had  come  in,  exceedingly  significant  historically,  but  other- 
wise as  unmeaning  in  art  as  the  sudden  quirk  was  in  chirog- 
raphy  that  used  to  adorn  our  writing-books  at  the  district 
school  when  the  master  came  up  from  behind  and  rapped 
our  knuckles  with  his  ruler  to  keep  us  from  making  crooked 
lines.  And,  as  we  compared  the  two  results,  we  all  con- 
cluded that  the  best  way  to  draw  pictures  when  the  tide  has 
turned  is  to  begin  the  whole  thing  anew  and  draw  every 
object  in  them  directly  from  its  new  point  of  view. 

What  took  place  with  our  tugboat  on  Puget  Sound  has 
taken  place  in  our  day  with  the  bark  of  thought  on  the  sea 
of  life.  Its  tide  has  turned — the  great  tide  of  philosophy 
sweeping  here  and  there  in  past  ages  through  all  manner  of 
strange  channels,  turned  at  last  in  this  bright  afternoon  of 
the  nineteenth  century  to  the  side  of  evolution  ;  and  it  has 
inevitably  changed  with  it  the  point  of  view  from  which 
the  whole  universe  is  to  be  seen.  It  is  a  tremendous  change. 
Not  unnaturally,  when  first  discovered,  it  wrung  forth  from 
timid  lips  the  ejaculation,  "  Oh  !  oh !  oh  !  we're  all  adrift ! " 
And  there  are  some  even  now  who  refuse  to  recognize  in 
their  work  that  anything  has  taken  place ;  some  who  go  on 
teaching  and  describing  things  from  the  old  creation  stand- 
point, just  as  they  did  before ;  and  others — ministers,  alas ! — 
who  do  indeed  recognize  the  new  position,  but  who  think 
the  only  safe  way  is  to  mix  up  the  two  in  their  views,  look 
at  Nature  and  natural  science  from  the  standpoint  of  evolu- 
tion, and  at  religion  and  ethics  from  that  of  creation,  and 
who,  with  a  miracle  of  perspective  such  as  the  devoutest  saint- 
painter  of  the  middle  ages  never  dreamed  of,  represent  the 
Bible,  Jesus,  Christianity,  and  our  human  nature  as  showing 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  511 

at  the  same  time  a  natural  and  a  supernatural  origin  and  end. 
But  the  great  body  of  thinking  people  are  coming  to  see 
more  and  more  clearly  that  if  they  would  not  make  their 
work  ridiculous,  the  only  true  way  is  to  lay  aside  reverently 
all  forms  of  it  drawn  from  their  old  position,  retaining  only 
the  ripened  skill  it  gave  them,  and  begin  the  whole  thing 
over  again  from  the  standpoint  of  evolution.  Religion,  his- 
tory, sociology,  natural  science,  education,  economics,  even 
ethics,  each  has  got  to  be  entirely  rewritten.  The  objects 
themselves  which  they  deal  with,  these  of  course  are  the 
same ;  but  their  perspective,  their  relation  to  each  other 
and  to  the  eye  which  sees  them,  often  a  vastly  more  impor- 
tant element  in  the  truth  of  things  than  any  special  facts 
about  them — that  is  changed,  that  change  what  henceforth 
in  any  fair  consideration  of  them  must  assuredly  be  taken 
into  account.  The  subject  you  have  given  me  to  discuss  this 
evening — Moral  Questions  in  Politics — is  one  which  needs 
pre-eminently  such  a  revised  treatment.  And  interpreting 
it  in  a  large  way  as  meaning  not  so  much  a  consideration 
of  the  special  moral  questions  that  are  now  prominent  in 
politics  as  of  the  principle  of  acting  politically  on  any  such 
questions,  and  a  comparison  with  it  of  the  other  great 
methods  of  their  settlement — making  it,  in  fact,  include  the 
whole  field  of  how  society's  moral  progress  under  evolution 
is  to  be  brought  about — my  aim  will  be  to  present  its  parts 
not  as  an  advocate,  but  in  their  natural  grouping,  and  with 
all  alike  of  the  lights  and  shadows  that  from  this  new  stand- 
point they  themselves  show. 

EVOLUTION'S  DEFINITION  OF  MORAL  QUESTIONS. 

What,  as  related  to  the  body  politic,  are  moral  questions  ? 
Here,  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  subject,  the  world's 
changed  perspective  makes  itself  manifest.  We  all  know 
what  have  been  regarded  as  such  hitherto.  They  have 
been  questions  about  slavery,  intemperance,  gambling, 
the  social  evil,  the  treatment  of  criminals,  the  rights  of 
women,  and  the  like,  as  distinguished  from  questions  that 
were  simply  sanitary,  civil,  economic,  industrial,  military, 
and  the  like ;  and  their  moral  quality  has  been  thought  to 
consist,  the  same  as  with  the  individual,  in  their  relation 
sometimes  to  utility,  sometimes  to  happiness,  sometimes  to 
the  Divine  will,  and  sometimes  to  an  eternal  distinction  in 
the  nature  of  things.  But  under  evolution  this  old  limita- 


512  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

tion  with  regard  to  them  is  largely  wiped  out.  The  scope 
of  morality  is  made  by  it  to  be  everything  in  man's  conduct, 
both  individual  and  social,  physical  and  spiritual,  which  re- 
lates to  his  full  development  and  well-being  ;  or,  as  Spencer 
puts  it,  "  the  moral  law  is  the  law  of  the  complete  life,  the 
law  of  the  perfect  man,  the  law  of  that  state  toward  which 
creation  tends."  It  does  not  exclude  the  idea  of  an  eter- 
nal distinction  in  the  nature  of  things  between  right  and 
wrong,  any  more  than  counting  on  the  fingers  does  the 
necessity  that  two  and  two  would  still  make  four  even  in  a 
world  which  had  no  fingers  to  be  counted  on;  does  not 
deny  that,  so  far  as  the  individual  is  concerned,  motive, 
volition,  knowledge,  capacity,  are  important  elements  in 
determining  the  moral  character  of  an  action ;  but  it  says 
that  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  know  of  the  distinction 
is  by  the  accumulated  experience  of  the  individual  and  the 
race  with  regard  to  their  effects,  and  that  so  far  as  society 
is  concerned  it  is  the  effects  alone  that  are  to  be  considered — 
the  right  being  all  those  things  which,  taken  as  a  rule,  tend 
to  promote  the  well-being  of  its  members,  no  matter  how 
material  their  form,  or  lowly  their  motive ;  the  wrong,  all 
those  which,  taken  as  a  rule,  tend  to  prevent  it,  no  matter 
how  religious  their  garb  or  worthy  their  motive.  And 
wherever  it  finds  a  question  as  to  which  of  these  two  courses 
the  community  shall  allow  its  members  to  enter  upon  or 
continue  in,  wherever  a  question  of  what  will  enable  men 
in  their  relations  with  each  other  to  best  secure  the  great 
ends  of  life,  whether  it  be  that  of  freeing  a  street  from 
filth  or  a  race  from  bondage,  there  it  finds  what  to  society 
is  a  moral  question. 

It  is  the  only  definition  which  really  covers  the  whole 
inner  field  even  of  recognized  morality — is  a  theory  which, 
instead  of  making  ethics  less  rigorous  and  wide-reaching  in 
forbidding  robbery  and  murder  and  the  like,  as  Mr.  Huxley 
seems  to  fear,  makes  it  a  great  deal  more  imperative  and 
comprehensive.  What  are  the  worst  crimes  against  life  and 
property  that  society  suffers  from?  Not  those  which  are 
committed  with  the  point  of  a  pistol  and  the  blow  of  a 
bludgeon,  but  often  those  which  are  committed  with  a 
point  of  law  and  a  piece  of  financiering.  Here  is  a  factory 
whose  agent  insists  against  all  remonstrance  on  keeping  its 
windows  closed  because  of  the  finer  cloth  he  can  thus  make, 
out  of  which  a  girl  is  carried  fainting  who  in  three  weeks 
dies.  Out  of  a  dwelling-house  near  by  another  girl  is  car- 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  513 

ried,  stabbed,  who  in  three  weeks  dies  also.  The  one  is 
called  a  murder,  and  its  agent  is  hanged  for  it.  The  other 
is  called  a  misfortune,  and  its  agent  gets  a  dividend  of  ten 
per  cent  for  it  and  is  admitted  to  the  Church.  Is  there  any 
justice  in  such  a  distinction — any  reason  why  all  such  cases 
should  not  be  defined  and  dealt  with  as  of  the  same  moral 
character — anything  in  the  philosophy  which  does  it  which 
lessens  the  stigma  attaching  to  them  as  robbery  and  murder  ? 
What  constitutes  the  real  essence  of  slavery.  Not  alone  the 
owning  of  a  human  being.  When  it  began,  as  it  did,  in 
the  sparing  of  a  captive's  life,  it  was  a  virtue.  No ;  but 
the  treating  of  a  man  as  a  thing,  the  supplanting  of  his  own 
will  with  the  will  of  another,  one  of  the  most  deadly  ways  of 
interfering  with  his  well-being.  And  wherever  this  is  done, 
whether  in  a  Southern  cotton- field  under  a  system  of  lashes, 
or  in  a  Northern  workshop  under  a  system  of  wages,  or  in 
a  Utopian  government  under  a  system  of  laws,  why  is  not  the 
question  of  how  to  prevent  it  as  much  in  the  one  case  as  in 
the  other  a  moral  question — a  widening,  therefore,  of  the 
ethical  field?  What  is  the  real  difference  between  those 
matters  which  ordinarily  are  called  economical  and  sanitary 
and  those  which  ordinarily  are  catalogued  as  ethical  and 
moral  ?  How  many  are  the  instances  in  which  it  is  only 
that  of  flower  and  fruit,  cause  and  effect  ?  What  makes  a 
man  a  drunkard?  How  often  is  it  starvation  wages! 
Where  do  filthy  lives  come  from?  How  frequently  from 
filthy  lodgings !  Debase  the  coin  of  a  country,  and  how 
quickly  will  an  alloy  appear  in  its  conscience !  Put  a  tariff 
on  its  merchandise,  and  what  is  better  proved  by  all  experi- 
ence than  that  it  will  pay  a  large  part  of  it  with  its  morals  ? 
And  with  such  a  relation  between  them  is  there  any  other 
consistent  principle  than  to  class  them  all  together  as  parts 
more  or  less  evolved  of  one  moral  species,  steps  higher  up 
or  lower  down  of  one  majestic  ladder ;  anything  in  doing 
so  that  does  not  give  duty  a  broader  base  and  a  wider 


It  is  the  only  definition  which  affords  a  solid  ground  for 
the  thorough  scientific  study  and  treatment  of  moral  ques- 
tions. The  great  difficulty  with  their  investigation  hitherto 
has  been  their  wide  separation  as  regards  the  origin  of 
what  is  most  distinctive  in  them  from  all  the  other  depart- 
ments of  scientific  inquiry — the  doctrine  that  though  their 
root  was  in  "  the  nature  of  things,"  it  was  a  "  nature  "  that 
did  not  mean  nature,  and  "  things  "  that  had  nothing  to  do 


514  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

with  things.  Trying  to  trace  their  principles  into  it  was 
like  pursuing  a  defaulting  cashier  or  a  boodle  alderman 
from  the  United  States  into  Canada,  an  experience  in  which 
science  came  suddenly  to  a  dividing  line  where  its  writs  of 
observation  and  experiment  were  no  longer  of  any  authority, 
and  where  only  the  royal  missives  of  intuition  were  recog- 
nized. And  with  such  a  difference  of  jurisdictions,  in  one 
of  which  were  the  deeds  and  in  the  other  the  doers,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  their  treatment  has  been  haphazard  and  con- 
fused, an  application  of  remedies  to  effects  rather  than  to 
their  cause.  It  is  a  difficulty  that  the  evolutionary  view  of 
what  constitutes  their  moral  character  entirely  removes. 
The  "  nature  of  things  "  under  which  they  are  to  be  studied 
is  real  nature.  And  there  is  no  longer  any  inconsistency  in 
recognizing  that  the  root  of  an  evil  may  be  in  a  sewer  be- 
cause its  fruit  is  in  a  soul. 

THE  OBJECTIONS  TO   MAN'S  MEDDLING  IN  ANY  WAT 
WITH  SUCH  QUESTIONS. 

How  are  moral  questions  thus  defined  to  be  dealt  with  ? 
Back  of  the  inquiry  as  to  whether  it  should  be  through 
politics  is  the  more  primitive  one  needing  first  to  be  settled 
as  to  whether  it  should  be  through  any  human  agency  at 
all,  except  as  man  is  unconsciously  the  agent  of  the  Power 
which  has  the  universe  in  charge.  There  is  a  large  school 
of  thinkers  who  distrust  all  interference  of  the  human  will 
for  moral  ends  with  the  processes  of  Nature,  and  especially 
with  its  processes  in  other  men.  They  are  not  only  indig- 
nant, as  the  English  girl  was  with  the  swimmer  who  vent- 
ured, without  an  introduction,  to  save  her  from  drowning, 
but  beyond  this  they  deny  the  right  of  any  man  and  of  any 
body  of  men  to  save  them  or  save  society  from  anything 
without  a  direct  request.  Let  things  do  themselves,  is  their 
motto.  The  mighty  forces  of  evolution,  which  have  shaped 
the  physical  universe  so  wonderful  and  fair,  rounded  out 
the  earth  with  its  marvelous  adaptations  of  part  to  part,  un- 
folded the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  to  their  perfec- 
tion of  form,  and  built  up  the  human  body  into  its  splen- 
did capacities  of  action,  are  not  going  to  depend  on  man's 
puny  aid,  they  say,  for  success,  now  that  society  is  to  be  or- 
ganized and  morals  evolved.  The  youth  who  took  the  place 
of  Phoebus  on  the  chariot  of  the  sun  and  attempted  to  drive 
its  fiery  steeds  over  the  azure  pave  to  their  home  in  the 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  515 

"West  is  to  them  modesty  itself  as  compared  with  the  man 
who  would  take  the  reins  of  Nature  in  his  hands  and  guide 
its  forces  to  their  moral  goal.  They  find  history  filled  with 
the  mistakes  and  blunders  of  the  world's  would-be  reform- 
ers. The  objects  that  one  age  has  labored  for  with  all  its 
ethical  might  have  been,  how  often,  the  horror  and  curse 
of  the  next!  Who  would  accept  the  ideals  set  forth  in 
Plato's  Republic,  Sydney's  Arcadia,  and  More's  Utopia,  as 
comparing  for  one  moment  with  the  realities  that  society 
has  come  to  in  the  actual  course  of  events  ?  What  is  the 
source  of  nine  tenths  of  the  tramps,  drunkards,  criminals, 
and  good-for-nothings  that  society  is  afflicted  with  to-day  ? 
The  mistaken  Christian  charity,  it  is  answered,  that  for 
eighteen  hundred  years  has  been  keeping  alive  a  class  of 
persons  to  perpetuate  their  stock  that  Nature,  let  alone  to 
execute  her  law  providing  for  the  survival  only  of  the  fittest, 
would  long  since  have  laid  harmlessly  away  in  graveyards. 
There  are  many  evils,  it  is  said,  the  same  as  there  are  many 
insects,  which  serve  better  than  any  human  wisdom  to  keep 
each  other  down — "  Evil  its  errand  hath  as  well  as  good  " — 
so  that  when  one  set  is  destroyed  by  man's  interference 
it  only  gives  the  others  a  better  chance  to  operate ;  many 
reforms,  also,  that  have  a  natural  connection  with  each  other 
and  with  the  world's  physical  progress,  so  that  if  any  one 
is  artificially  developed  faster  than  its  fellows,  no  matter 
how  good  it  may  be  in  itself,  it  results,  the  same  as  with  a 
flower  pushed  ahead  of  the  spring-time,  or  with  one  organ  of 
the  body  ahead  of  the  rest,  in  a  maladjustment  of  the 
new  good  which  in  its  effects  is  worse  tenfold  than  the 
old  evil.  And  from  such  facts  it  is  argued  that  instead  of 
trying  to  guide  Nature's  coach  ourselves,  either  politically 
or  otherwise,  our  true  course  is  to  sit  down  very  quietly  at 
her  side  and  leave  its  reins  very  carefully  in  her  hands. 

THE  WORLD'S  INDWELLING  POWER  THAT   MAKES  FOR 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  deny  or  undervalue  in  any  way  the 
tremendous  moral  strain  of  Nature's  own  work.  There  is 
no  other  standpoint  that  mind  can  take  from  which  it 
looms  up  so  conspicuous  and  so  undeniable  as  from  that 
of  evolution.  It  is  the  great  mountain  stream  rising  in 
the  far-off  cloudy  peaks  of  the  world's  nebulous  state,  and 
flowing  down  with  ever-increasing  volume  through  its 


516  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

starry  gorges,  its  bent  and  distorted  geological  strata, 
and  its  monstrous  animal  forms  into  the  regions  of  its  civ- 
ilized life,  the  stream  on  the  banks  of  which  all  human 
moralities  are  built,  and  by  the  force  of  which  all  human 
reforms  are  carried  on.  The  universe  itself  all  through  is  a 
moral  agent,  not  of  the  kind  perhaps  always  that  would  win 
the  prize  at  a  Sunday  school,  or  get  its  practitioner  admitted 
into  good  society  as  a  model  of  deportment,  but  one  that 
has  been  true  to  its  great  principle  of  doing  what  would 
conduce  best  to  the  ever  higher  well-being  of  itself  and  its 
creatures ;  one  that  has  come  up  from  the  wild  orgies  of  its 
saurian  youth  into  the  decencies  of  a  nineteenth-century 
manhood,  and  from  its  myriad  bloody-nosed  rounds  of  fisti- 
cuff with  savages  and  barbarians  to  the  battle-fields  of  civil- 
ized industry  and  to  the  victories  of  enlightened  peace.  If 
its  contests  at  first  were  only  those  of  brute  strength  and 
brute  cunning,  and  its  survivals  the  survivals  only  of  those 
that  were  physically  fittest,  it  was  simply  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  its  final  moral  structure  the  more  solid  and  secure, 
simply  because  the  root  of  moral  right,  as  we  now  know,  is 
in  a  right  physical  soil.  And  the  lily  and  the  lark  have  not 
more  surely  come  out  of  the  awful  struggles  for  existence 
of  the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds  than  Love's  flower  and 
Religion's  song  have  from  the  wars  of  hate  and  from  the 
grovelings  of  passion  in  the  moral  world. 

THE  CONSISTENCY  or  MAN'S  ACTIVITY  WITH  THAT  OF 
NATURE. 

But  this  recognition  of  Nature's  inherent  moral  strain, 
instead  of  doing  away  with  the  need  of  man's  voluntary 
effort  in  the  same  direction,  is  a  stimulus  all  the  more  to  its 
use.  The  human  will  is  not  a  separate  thing  from  Nature 
any  more  than  the  human  body  is,  but  is  a  part  of  Nature — 
one  of  its  grandest  parts.  The  daring  injunction  of  the  old 
apostle  Paul,  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling,  for  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you  both  to  will 
and  to  do,"  expresses  the  true  relation  of  the  two  agents. 
And  it  is  because  of  this  mighty  power  working  within  us, 
because  our  little  human  wheel  is  belted  to  the  great  driv- 
ing-wheel of  the  universe,  that  we  can  take  hold  of  moral 
questions  with  some  hope  of  being  an  aid  in  their  solu- 
tion. 

The  right  to  do  so,  and  especially  the  right  of  the  indi- 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  517 

vidual  to  help  in  the  solution  of  those  matters  which  con- 
cern other  individuals,  is  based  on  the  fact  that  man  is 
not  a  unit  separate  from  all  other  units,  but  a  member 
with  them  of  an  organism  in  whose  welfare  his  own  well- 
being  is  vitally  bound  up,  and  for  whose  conduct  he  shares 
with  them  the  responsibility.  There  is  indeed  a  sphere  in 
which  the  individual  is  supreme,  and  into  which  no  other 
man  and  no  body  of  men  have  the  right  without  his  consent 
to  intrude — a  sphere  in  which  he  must  be  good  or  bad, 
saved  or  lost  by  and  for  himself  alone.  Its  existence  is  one 
of  the  grandest  and  most  distinctive  facts  of  our  humanity. 
It  is  a  realm  in  which  the  poorest  beggar  is  monarch ;  a 
plantation  on  which  the  most  abject  slave  is  master;  a 
castle  in  which,  more  truly  than  in  his  home,  every  English- 
man and  every  man  is  lord.  And  any  social  system  that 
would  take  it  away  or  narrow  its  bounds,  whatever  com- 
pensation of  other  blessings  it  may  promise,  is  to  be  fought 
against  as  man's  bitterest  foe.  Not  less  true  is  it,  however, 
that  there  are  other  relations  in  which  the  individual  is 
only  one  part  of  a  larger  unit,  one  state  of  a  grander  king- 
dom, and  in  which  he  normally  both  controls  and  is  con- 
trolled by  its  other  members.  It  is  these  two  organisms, 
each  legitimate,  each  the  product  of  Nature,  each  vibrating 
rhythmically  back  and  forth  into  the  other,  that  make  hu- 
manity. All  the  great  questions  between  individualism 
and  socialism  turn  on  the  extent  to  which  their  existence 
is  recognized,  one  party  going  to  the  extreme  of  making  the 
individual  the  all  in  all,  the  other  to  the  extreme  of  subordi- 
nating everything  to  the  control  of  society.  Evolution 
recognizes  them  both  in  its  principles  of  differentiation  and 
integration  ;  Christianity  both  in  its  command,  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself — words  which  mean  not  as 
much  as  thyself,  but  as  being  a  part  of  thy  larger  self. 
And  just  precisely  as  the  individual  has  the  right  to  answer 
alone  all  moral  questions  in  the  realm  where  he  alone  is 
concerned,  on  precisely  the  same  ground  he  has  the  right  to 
join  with  others  in  answering  all  those  in  the  sphere  where 
he  has  with  them  a  common  interest. 

Then  as  to  the  wisdom  and  policy  of  attempting  to 
guide  Nature's  forces  to  their  moral  goal — are  they  not  as 
pronounced  here  as  in  the  use  of  the  human  will  any- 
where? Men  do  not  act  on  the  laissez-faire  doctrine  in 
the  other  relations  of  life — do  not  let  the  fields  alone  to  give 
them  only  their  native  fruits,  or  the  winds  and  waves  alone 


518  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

to  toss  them  where  they  please,  or  diseases  and  sickness 
alone  to  kill  them  in  their  own  good  time,  or  the  lightnings 
and  the  cataract  and  the  expansive  power  of  steam  alone 
to  advance  society  after  their  own  slow  fashion.  No  ;  they 
mix  them  up  with  humanity ;  they  bit  their  wild  mouths ; 
they  harness  their  mighty  forces;  they  mount  the  box 
behind  their  swift  heels ;  they  guide  them,  loaded  with  ten 
thousand  human  interests,  to  goals  that  by  themselves  alone 
they  would  never  reach.  What  is  all  civilization  as  com- 
pared with  barbarism,  what  is  America  to-day,  jeweled  with 
cities,  laced  with  railroads,  waving  with  wheat-fields,  rich 
with  thought,  as  compared  with  America  three  centuries 
ago,  a  howling  wilderness,  but  the  refusal  of  men  in  other 
things  to  act  on  the  let-alone  principle  ?  Why  now  should 
they  act  on  it  in  the  moral  world  ?  Why  not  join  hands 
with  Nature  in  curing  the  diseases  of  the  social  body,  rais- 
ing richer  virtues  in  the  field  of  the  soul,  utilizing  with  tem- 
perance factories  the  eternal  power  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness, steaming  labor  on  to  justice,  and  making  a 
trolley-system  by  which  right's  lightning  shall  hasten  hu- 
manity's plodding  feet  on  to  its  goal?  With  Nature's  force 
the  same  eternal  mystery  everywhere,  is  there  any  more 
immodesty  in  seeking  to  drive  it  with  one  rein  than  with 
another,  any  more  impudence  in  guiding  its  stream  of 
righteousness  than  in  guiding  its  stream  of  life,  any  more 
absurdity  in  using  it  to  improve  a  virtue  than  in  using  it 
to  improve  a  vine  ?  What  if  mistakes  are  made  ?  They 
are  not  made  in  morals  any  oftener  than  they  are  in  art  and 
science  and  philosophy,  and  in  everything  else  with  which 
man  has  to  deal — are  a  part  of  the  food  on  which  here,  as 
everywhere  else,  man  grows  up  into  success.  What  if  re- 
forms do  need  to  move  on  together,  so  that  a  good  one 
pushed  ahead  of  the  others  becomes  an  evil?  There  is 
just  about  as  much  danger  of  mankind's  making  the  earth 
wobble  on  its  axis  by  their  all  crowding  into  its  one  good 
country  as  there  is  of  their  disturbing  its  moral  balance  by 
their  all  uniting  in  one  reform.  Taste  averages  here  as 
safely  as  in  all  other  things.  And  just  as  the  same  swing 
of  the  earth  along  its  orbit  that  brings  the  bobolink  to  his 
northern  home  in  spring-time,  brings  him  the  green 
meadows  to  sing  in,  just  so  the  same  eternal  spirit,  in  its 
larger  orbit  that  inspires  the  reformer  to  utter  his  song, 
operates  to  make  the  field  ready  in  which  it  is  to  be  sung, 
and  to  make  spring  also  in  all  its  surrounding  fields. 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  519 

How  has  the  world's  moral  progress  thus  far  been  car- 
ried on  ?  Just  as  certainly  by  the  action  of  human  wills 
as  by  the  great  working  force  of  Nature.  The  crown  and 
climax  of  the  universe's  moral  force,  the  last  and  finest 
form  in  which  it  ultimates  itself,  is  mankind's  volition. 
Other  things  are  used  to  make  its  trunk  and  limbs,  but  it 
blossoms  only  in  souls  and  fruits  itself  only  through  wills. 

More  important  still,  it  is  man's  personal  effort  in  moral 
questions  that  is  the  source  of  that  best  of  all  results  that 
comes  out  of  them,  his  own  moral  character.  If  Nature 
did  all,  and  man  was  only  the  recipient,  reforms  might  in- 
deed be  conducted  as  well  as,  perhaps  better  than,  they  are 
now ;  but  they  would  not  and  could  not  have  that  wonder- 
ful flavor  about  them  which  makes  them  distinctively  moral. 
It  is  the  giver,  not  receiver,  that  in  the  struggles  of  human- 
ity upward  gets  the  greater  blessing. 

"  Not  the  grapes  of  Canaan  that  repay, 
But  the  high  faith  that  failed  not  on  the  way." 

What  was  the  most  precious  outcome  of  the  antislavery 
struggle  and  our  civil  war?  Not  the  freedom  of  the  slave, 
or  the  salvation  of  the  Union,  or  the  new  life  it  gave  to 
liberty  beyond  the  seas  No ;  but  the  new  manhood  into 
which  it  lifted  up  ourselves,  the  finer  quality  of  Union  that 
it  brought  to  our  whole  land,  North  and  South.  It  is  this 
kind  of  success  that  always  comes  in  all  moral  struggles, 
however  much  they  fail  outwardly — this  the  laurel  that  the 
vanquished  equally  with  the  victors  all  win  in  the  battles 
that  are  fought  for  human  rights. 

So  I  say  in  answer  to  this  part  of  the  inquiry  that  it  is  a 
strict  deduction  from  the  principles  of  evolution  that  men 
are  to  take  an  active  part  in  dealing  with  the  world's  moral 
issues  I  saw  a  coachman  a  while  ago  with  his  chubby  two- 
year-old  boy  on  the  seat  in  front  of  him  driving  a  spirited 
pair  of  horses.  "  He  is  young  yet,"  said  he,  "  and  I  keep  a 

food  grip  on  the  reins  back  of  him ;  but  he'll  come  to  it 
imself  with  a  little  practice  by  and  by.     He's  got  the  blood 
of  six  generations  of  coachmen  in  him,  and  blood  tells  the 
same  here  as  everywhere     Why,"  he  continued,  "  we're  all 
of  us  born  into  the  world  with  a  twist  in  our  wrists  for 
holding  the  ribbons ;  and  I  am  going  to  train  him  so  that 
when  I  am  old  and  decrepit  I  can  sit  on  the  back  seat  feel- 
ing safe  and  let  him  do  all  the  driving."     So  with  Nature. 
Yes;  ridiculous  as  it  has  been  thought  to  be,  she  has  taken 
34 


520  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

her  boy,  Man,  with  her  up  on  the  great  coach  of  the  uni- 
verse and  has  given  him  its  reins.  He  is  young  yet,  and 
she  keeps  a  good  grip  on  them  herself  at  the  same  time. 
But  he  has  got  her  stock  in  him  for  sixty  thousand  genera- 
tions, and  she  knows  that  such  stock  in  the  end  will  tell. 
He,  too,  is  born  every  time  with  a  twist  in  his  soul- wrists 
for  moral  driving.  And  in  the  long  eons  yet  to  come,  when 
her  form  outwardly  has  grown  old  and  decrepit,  she  too, 
perhaps,  expects  to  sit  on  the  back  seat  of  the  spiritual  uni- 
verse and  let  him  do  all  the  driving. 

THE  HUMAN  FACTOES. 

The  settling  of  this  point,  however,  does  not  by  any 
means  settle  the  whole  subject.  There  are  two  ways  of 
driving,  two  methods  in  morals  of  helping  things  along. 
One  is  with  politics,  state  authority,  and  the  whip  and  spur 
of  law ;  the  other  with  inward  principle,  voluntary  associa- 
tion, and  the  voice  and  rein  of  reason.  And  the  question 
yet  to  be  answered  is,  Which  of  these  does  evolution  lead  up 
to  and  sanction? 

LAW   ASTD   THE   STATE. 

The  great  nations  of  antiquity,  as  is  well  known,  placed 
their  chief  reliance  on  the  first  of  these  methods.  The 
words  of  Pliny,  Non  est  princeps  supra  leges>  sed  leges  supra 
principem — principle  is  not  above  laws,  but  laws  are  above 
principle — and  of  Aristotle,  that  the  state  exists  before  the 
individual,  and  not  the  individual  before  the  state,  ex- 
pressed the  almost  universal  sentiment.  What  the  world 
in  its  early  days  wanted  beyond  everything  else,  wanted 
with  an  intensity  we  can  hardly  realize  now,  was  stability, 
a  condition  of  things  fixed  against  change,  violence,  dis- 
order; and  this  it  had  in  the  state,  this  the  origin  and 
meaning  of  its  name.  Its  form  at  first  was  naturally  im- 
perialism— that  of  the  one  strong  man  who  could  suppress 
disorder.  He  was  its  government ;  his  will  its  law ;  obe- 
dience to  him  its  morals.  The  oft-quoted  saying  of  Louis 
XIV,  "  I  am  the  state,"  was  what  all  kings  believed ;  the 
pious  sentiment  of  the  Bishop  of  Rheims,  "  When  God  had 
made  Napoleon  he  rested  from  his  labors,"  an  expression  of 
the  reverence  for  great  leaders  as  the  greatest  of  divine 
gifts  that  all  people  felt.  .  But  kings  were  not  always  king- 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  521 

ly  or  rulers  always  righteous ;  and  little  by  little,  each  step 
a  battle,  each  line  a  revolution,  legalism  took  the  place  of 
imperialism,  the  people's  law  of  the  prince's  will.  Frederick 
the  Great,  wishing  a  windmill  removed  from  before  his  pal- 
ace that  its  owner  would  not  sell,  threatened  to  have  it 
taken  away  by  force.  "  There  is  a  supreme  court  at  Ber- 
lin," answered  the  miller;  and  the  windmill  stands  before 
the  palace  to  this  day,  a  monument  to  the  might  of  law 
against  the  might  even  of  kings.  But  amid  all  these  changes 
of  form  the  state  itself  remained,  the  center  of  men's  hopes, 
the  object  of  their  devotion,  as  honored  under  law  as  leader, 
demos  as  despot.  The  habit  acquired  through  long  ages  of 
reverencing  it  as  the  source  of  all  public  order  and  the 
means  of  all  public  good  had  become  a  part  of  our  very 
nature.  And  so  it  was  almost  inevitable  when  men  in  the 
progress  of  modern  civilization  came  to  have  great  moral 
questions  to  deal  with  that  they  should  look  to  politics  and 
political  action  as  the  chief,  if  not  the  only,  means  by  which 
they  could  be  satisfactorily  settled. 

THE  CHANGE  OF  SENTIMENT  WITH  REGARD  TO  LAW. 

Evolution,  however,  has  no  sooner  built  up  anything, 
even  a  sentiment,  than  it  begins  either  to  tear  it  down  or 
to  shape  it  over  into  something  else.  Gradually  in  our  time 
a  change  is  taking  place  in  not  a  few  minds  with  regard 
to  the  value  of  law  and  the  state  as  the  means  of  promot- 
ing any  of  man's  interests.  Emerson's  words — "We  are 
kept  by  better  gods  than  the  will  of  magistrates  " ;  "  good 
men  must  not  obey  the  laws  too  well " ;  "  to  educate  the 
wise  man  the  state  exists,  and  with  the  appearance  of  the 
wise  man  the  state  expires  " — express  a  widespread  feeling 
not  among  cranks  and  bomb-throwers  merely,  but  among 
sober,  orderly,  peaceful  thinkers.  It  is  the  same  kind  of  so- 
ciological change,  only  a  stage  farther  along,  as  that  by 
which  imperialism  gave  way  to  constitutionalism  and  the 
potentate  to  the  politician — a  change  by  which  now  legalism 
is  giving  way  to  individualism,  law  to  liberty,  politics  to 
principle.  The  old  order  which  put  the  state  above  the 
citizen,  the  laws  above  principles,  has  been  already  entirely 
reversed.  Governments  are  being  remanded,  if  not  into 
the  rubbish  heap  of  the  world's  back  yard,  yet  into  a  sec- 
ondary and  subordinate  place.  And  whereas  men  have  re- 
lied in  the  past  on  the  sovereign  and  the  statute  book  for 


522  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

order,  safety,  property,  happiness,  they  are  now  fast  coming 
to  rely  for  them  simply  on  themselves. 

IMPERFECTIONS  OF  THE  POLITICAL  METHOD. 

It  is  a  change  which  has  pre-eminently  made  itself  felt  in 
the  estimate  of  politics  as  a  means  of  dealing  with  moral 
questions.  The  very  names  of  the  two  things  have  come  to 
have  a  natural  incongruity  with  each  other.  As  Emerson 
says,  "  What  satire  on  government  can  equal  the  word  poli- 
tic, which  for  ages  has  signified  cunning,  intimating  that 
the  state  is  a  trick  ?  " 

Who  are  chosen  to  act  as  our  legislators  ?  If  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  carpentry,  we  do  not  trust  a  man  to  build  even  a 
hen-coop  who  has  not  had  some  little  apprenticeship  at  the 
trade ;  but  in  this  most  difficult  of  all  arts,  the  building  of 
a  state,  the  shaping  of  what  is  to  be  a  moral  habitation,  the 
one,  as  Burke  says,  that  "  requires  all  the  experience  a  per- 
son can  gain  in  his  whole  life,"  how  often  are  those  chosen 
who  have  never  spent  one  hour  in  studying  the  real  nature 
of  government  and  of  morals,  and  whose  sole  qualification 
is  their  ability  to  manipulate  a  caucus,  pander  to  a  popular 
prejudice,  or,  it  may  be,  buy  outright  the  popular  vote ! 

What  are  moral  questions  used  for  in  politics  ?  As  soon 
as  the  first  outburst  of  enthusiasm  is  over  out  of  which  the 
parties  that  take  them  up  are  born,  how  inevitably  does  the 
execution  of  their  principles  sink  into  a  secondary  place, 
and  their  main  use  become  the  keeping  of  their  advocates 
in  power  !  If  Jove  laughs  at  lovers'  vows,  how  he  must  roar 
at  politicians'  promises !  The  performances  of  a  circus  on 
its  advertising  board  fence  and  in  its  actual  equestrian  ring, 
or  even  the  virtues  of  a  citizen  on  his  grave-stone  and  in  his 
life,  are  hardly  wider  apart  than  those  of  a  political  party 
before  election  and  afterward.  The  story  is  told  in  the  ad- 
ventures of  the  famous  Baron  Munchausen,  that  coming 
one  night  to  what  seemed  a  great  island  in  the  far-off  sea, 
some  of  his  sailors  climbed  up  its  steep  sides  and  made  on 
its  top  a  fire  with  which  to  cook  their  supper.  The  sup- 
posed island,  however,  proved  to  be  a  huge  whale  asleep  on 
the  water ;  and  as  soon  as  the  fire  had  burned  a  little  into 
his  blubber,  it  waked  him  up  and  down  he  went,  sailors, 
supper,  fire,  and  all,  to  his  home  in  the  vasty  deep.  And 
that  is  the  experience  reformers  have  had  again  and  again 
when  they  have  climbed  up  on  the  back  of  some  apparently 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  523 

continental  political  party  and  kindled  there  the  moral  fire 
with  which  to  cook  a  supper  of  temperance,  woman's  suffrage, 
or  labor  rights.  As  soon  as  it  began  to  burn  down  into  the 
fat,  how  quickly  has  it  become  a  whale  and  left  them  and 
their  cause  exactly  where  Munchausen's  sailors  were,  floun- 
dering in  the  watery  deep  !  As  Hosea  Biglow  declares : 

"  Constitouents  are  bendy  to  help  a  man  in, 
But  arterwards  they  don't  weigh  the  heft  of  a  pin." 

Then  the  methods  by  which  politics  and  legislation  are 
carried  on — the  manipulations  of  the  caucus  and  primary 
meeting,  the  torchlight  processions,  hurrahing  and  mudfling- 
ing  of  the  campaign,  and  the  logrolling,  bribery,  and  parti- 
sanship of  the  lobby-room — who  will  say  they  are  the  ones 
out  of  which  nice  moral  results  are  likely  to  come  ?  Is  there 
really  any  evil  in  society  to-day  that  politics  can  be  set 
to  run  down  which  is  worse  than  politics  itself,  anything 
which  needs  reforming  more  imperatively  than  the  would- 
be  political  reformer?  A  dudish  hunter  went  out  into 
the  woods  one  morning  with  his  equally  dudish  dog  and 
started  a  wolf.  An  hour  after,  meeting  a  grim  old  farmer, 
he  asked  him  if  he  had  seen  anything  of  the  two.  "  Oh, 
yes,"  said  the  farmer,  "  I  saw  them  going  by  here  a  lit- 
tle while  ago  fast  as  they  could  run."  "  And  how  near 
were  they  to  each  other  ?  "  anxiously  inquired  the  youth. 
"Well,"  answered  the  farmer,  "the  dog  when  I  saw  them 
was  about  two  lengths  ahead,  but  the  wolf  was  fast  over- 
hauling him,  and  I  guess  that  by  this  time  they  are  just 
about  together."  So  with  very  much  of  the  politics  that 
we  have  started  out  to  hunt  down  moral  evil.  The  hunter 
may  indeed  be  some  two  lengths  ahead  now,  but  the  game 
is  fast  coming  up  with  him,  and  the  two  very  soon  will 
be  together — one  inside  of  the  other. 

But  even  where  politics  is  pure  and  honest,  as,  indeed, 
it  sometimes  is,  even  when  the  wisest  and  best  of  men 
get  together  to  make  laws,  as,  indeed,  they  sometimes  do, 
there  are  limitations  in  the  method  itself  which  make  it  in 
dealing  with  moral  issues  only  of  partial  value.  The  pro- 
posed law  has  to  be  cut  and  trimmed  and  pared  down  to 
meet  their  varying  tastes.  It  never  can  be  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  highest  and  most  advanced  principles,  never  at 
the  best  ahead  of  what  the  average  mind,  the  bare  majority 
of  a  people,  will  sustain ;  otherwise  it  will  be  only  a  dead 
letter.  And  when  it  is  enforced  'it  secures  to  itself  only  an 


524  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

outward  obedience,  not  the  homage  of  the  soul ;  cuts  down 
the  branch  of  evil,  but  leaves  its  root  to  unfold,  it  may  be, 
in  a  far  worse  shape ;  suppresses  the  saloon,  but  drives  the 
jug  into  the  home ;  wipes  out  slavery,  but  puts  in  its  place 
the  race  problem ;  shuts  up  the  brothel,  but  sows  the  whole 
city  with  its  inmates ;  provides,  perhaps,  in  the  very  fact  of 
obedience  to  its  letter,  a  quietus  to  the  conscience  for  break- 
ing, all  the  more,  its  inward  spirit.  "  Sammy,"  said  a  mother 
to  her  little  boy  who  was  playing  in  the  yard,  and  whom 
she  wished  to  keep  from  the  dangers  of  the  street,  "  don't 
you  go  out  of  that  gate."  "  No,  mother,"  he  answered,  "  I 
won't  go  out  of  it."  Ten  minutes  after,  beholding  him 
making  mud  pies  right  between  the  cart  ruts,  she  angrily 
exclaimed  :  "  Samuel,  why  didn't  you  obey  me  ?  Didn't  I 
tell  you  not  to  go  out  of  that  gate  ?  "  "  Yes,  mother,"  he  re- 
plied, "  and  I  did  obey  you.  I  didn't  go  out  of  the  gate ;  I 
climbed  over  the  fence."  How  many  are  the  grown-up 
Samuels  who  strictly  obey  the  State  Mother  when  she  tells 
them  not  to  go  out  of  the  gate  into  eviL  but  who  in  doing 
so  manage  all  the  same  to  make  for  themselves  plenty  of 
mud  pies  out  in  the  roads  of  vice  and  wrong  by  climbing 
conscience-easy  over  the  unprohibited  garden  fence  ! 

Worst  of  all,  as  a  politically  made  law  can  express  only 
the  average  morality  as  regards  virtue,  so  also  it  can  meet 
only  the  average  need  as  regards  justice.  It  can  not  dis- 
criminate, can  not  take  into  account  an  evil's  intensifying 
and  extenuating  circumstances,  can  judge  only  by  the  out- 
ward act,  has  to  saw  off  its  punishment  as  we  saw  wood,  by 
the  foot  measure  ;  and  the  best  legislation  thus  applied  be- 
comes sometimes  an  instrument  of  wrong  that  wrong  itself 
would  hardly  dare  originate.  A  little  lame  boy  nine  years 
old,  with  no  home  and  no  friends,  who  had  stolen  a  few 
pennies,  is  seized  by  it  and  locked  up  in  jail,  at  first  alone, 
where,  so  timid  and  so  little  beyond  babyhood  was  he,  that 
the  sheriff  had  to  put  a  light  in  his  cell  to  keep  him  from 
crying  all  night,  afterward  for  four  months  with  a  vile, 
licentious  negro.  And  at  the  same  time  the  boodle  alder- 
men, the  defaulting  cashier,  and  the  downright  thief,  who 
have  stolen  moneys  by  the  hundred  thousand,  are  enabled — 
how  many  of  them ! — to  walk,  money  and  all,  through  law's 
unlocked  doors.  A  woman  with  a  nursing  baby  is  sentenced 
to  ten  days'  imprisonment  for  calling  a  man  who  had  insulted 
her  "  vile  names,"  so  little  hardened  that  on  hearing  the 
sentence  she  fainted  away;  while  in  every  great  political 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  525 

canvass  a  thousand  newspapers  on  each  side  fling  charges  at 
each  other  and  at  the  opposite  candidates  too  outrageous  to 
be  expressed  by  the  term  "  vile  names,"  all  not  only  unre- 
buked  by  law,  but  sustained  by  it  as  the  necessary  instru- 
ments sometimes  of  settling  great  moral  questions.  It  was 
found  a  while  ago  in  the  city  where  I  live  that  its  charities 
were  encouraging  idleness  among  the  overgrown  boys  in 
some  of  its  families,  and  a  law  was  made  that  no  household 
should  receive  public  aid  which  had  children  whose  age  was 
over  twenty-one — a  most  righteous  law  apparently;  but  the 
very  first  case  it  cut  off  was  that  of  a  half-blind  old  lady  of 
eighty  who  was  doing  her  best  to  support  an  idiot  daughter 
of  forty — the  most  deserving  case  in  the  whole  city.  Visit- 
ing the  veteran  keeper  of  our  county  jail  on  one  occasion,  I 
expressed  the  opinion  that  in  the  twenty  years  of  his  official 
life  he  must  have  seen  a  very  dark  side  of  human  nature. 
"  No,"  said  he,  "  the  average  of  those  who  come  here  is  quite 
as  good  as  the  average  outside.  Of  course  I  get  some  down- 
right rascals,  but  usually  the  big  villains  have  too  much 
shrewdness,  or  too  much  money,  or  too  much  legal  help  to 
get  into  my  clutches.  Most  of  those  who  come  to  me  are 
men  who  have  some  one  weak  place  in  their  nature  which 
some  one  combination  of  circumstances  has  happened  to 
assail,  but  who  otherwise  are  exceptionally  good  men  and 
men  who  in  all  other  circumstances  would  have  lived  and 
died  respected  citizens."  Look  at  the  side  effects  of  polit- 
ical action  in  dealing  with  polygamy  out  in  Utah.  It  may 
have  suppressed  a  twin  relic  of  barbarism,  but  it  has  been 
only  by  using  a  twin  relic  of  bigotry — has  produced  about 
the  same  kind  of  morality  that  the  minister  did  piety  who 
whipped  his  child  to  death  to  make  him  say  his  prayers. 
The  dark  ages  can  not  show  a  more  outrageous  piece  of 
persecution  than  that  of  this  nineteenth  century  against 
Mormonism,  or  the  feudal  barons  a  more  outrageous  case  of 
robbery  than  that  of  the  United  States  in  seizing  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Mormon  Church.  Look  at  our  land's  very 
latest  legislative  effort  against  immorality,  its  action  on  the 
Chinese  question,  its  breaking  of  a  solemn  treaty  with  a 
people  to  whom  its  missionaries  are  preaching  a  religion  of 
faith  and  trust,  its  drawing  the  line  of  human  brotherhood 
at  almond  eyes  and  a  yellow  skin,  its  making  of  the  in- 
alienable rights  that  all  men  are  born  with  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  depend  for  thousands  of  them 
on  their  possession  of  a  United  States  license.  It  is  our 


526  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

country  taking  the  San  Francisco  hoodlums  for  its  model, 
our  Congress  and  President  going  to  the  California  sand-lots 
for  their  morals,  our  politicians  standing  at  the  door  of  the 
West  virtuously  forbidding  the  ignorant  Mongolian  to  come 
to  this  land  of  liberty,  and  at  the  doors  of  the  East  offering 
the  ignorant  Irishman  a  vote  with  which  to  enforce  the  de- 
nial. And  such  justice — who  shall  measure  the  distance  be- 
tween it  and  Hooker's  famous  definition  of  law,  that  of  it 
no  less  can  be  said  than  that  its  seat  is  in  the  bosom  of 
God? 

Then,  apart  from  the  failure  of  the  political  method  to 
reach  the  worst  cases  of  immorality,  how  many  are  the  lives 
of  earth's  noblest  and  best  that  it  has  sacrificed  on  its  scaf- 
folds and  gallows,  not  unintentionally  through  mistakes  of 
evidence,  but  knowingly  because  of  their  efforts  to  bring 
about  a  higher  morality ! 

"  Alas !  the  blows  for  error  meant 
Too  oft  on  truth  itself  are  spent." 

What  is  it  that  has  slaughtered  liberty's  advocates  on  a 
thousand  battle-fields  ?  The  sword  of  law's  defenders.  What 
has  been  the  worst  obstacle  that  reform — our  antislavery  re- 
form, for  instance — has  had  to  encounter  ?  Notoriously  the 
statute  book.  What  stands  next  to  church  law  as  responsi- 
ble throughout  all  time  for  the  blood  of  the  world's  martyrs  ? 
Beyond  question  political  law.  A  few  years  ago  warrants 
were  issued  for  the  arrest  of  eight  men  charged  with  mur- 
dering the  Chicago  police.  One  of  them  could  not  be 
found  and  might  easily  have  escaped  even  a  trial ;  but  con- 
scious, apparently,  of  his  own  innocence  and  hoping  by  his 
influence  to  save  his  companions,  he  voluntarily  walked  into 
the  court-house  during  their  trial  and  gave  himself  up  to 
its  officers.  It  was  a  deed  of  trust  in  law  and  of  gallantry 
toward  comrades  that  in  the  days  of  classic  Greece  and 
Eome  would  have  challenged  the  world's  admiration,  and 
which  might  apparently  even  in  our  day  have  weighed  some- 
thing in  showing  that  he  was  no  ordinary  criminal ;  but 
law  can  have  no  eye  for  chivalry  and  no  sense  of  honor  in 
dealing  with  its  offenders.  He  was  proved  guilty  of  throw- 
ing out,  if  not  bombs,  yet  dangerous  sentiments,  the  guilt 
of  reformers  in  all  ages,  and  was  hanged  as  remorselessly  as 
if  he  had  been  an  actual  murderer  stabbing  for  money  and 
cornered,  in  spite  of  himself,  by  a  vigilant  police. 

Such  cases  are  the  result  of  what  must  always  be  a  limita- 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  527 

tion  of  the  political  method  in  dealing  with  moral  questions, 
the  fixedness  of  its  enactments.  When  Nature  has  settled  a 
point  of  right,  she  immediately  leaves  it  to  take  care  of  itself 
thenceforth,  and  goes  on  to  help  settle  another ;  but  when 
law  has  settled  a  point  of  right,  it  immediately  sits  down 
square  upon  it,  and  devotes  all  its  energies  ever  after  to  keep- 
ing it  settled.  It  is  like  the  old  farmer's  horse — good  when 
you  want  it  to  stand,  but  very  poor  when  you  want  it  to  go. 
In  its  eyes  the  right  is  all  accomplished  good,  and  to  be  de- 
fended ;  the  wrong  all  unaccomplished  good,  and  to  be  re- 
sisted. The  worst  foe  of  new  morality  is  law-embodied  old 
morality.  Legislation  is  a  man  who  makes  barrels  by  put- 
ting the  boy  Principle  inside  of  them  to  hold  up  their  heads 
while  he  drives  on  the  hoops — a  good  way  if  each  barrel  thus 
finished  was  the  last  ever  needing  to  be  built.  But  every 
time  he  is  called  upon  to  build  a  better  one,  it  makes  it 
necessary  for  the  boy  to  smash  the  old  one  in  order  to  get 
out — a  process  which  naturally  causes  a  good  deal  of  disturb- 
ance, as  very  often  the  smashing  has  to  be  done  with  gun- 
powder. The  path  of  the  world's  moral  progress  through 
the  ages  is  marked  by  jts  smashed  and  abandoned  laws.  As 
Mr.  Buckle  puts  it,  "  Every  great  reform  which  has  been  ef- 
fected has  consisted  not  in  doing  something  new,  but  in  un- 
doing something  old."  And  with  such  a  record  the  satis- 
faction which  is  felt  at  getting  the  world's  moral  progress 
into  law  must  necessarily  be  a  good  deal  modified  by  the 
certainty  that  the  very  next  question  will  be  how  to  get  it 
out  of  law. 

THE  MORAL  METHOD. 

In  contrast  with  political  action,  look  at  man's  other  great 
method  of  aiding  morals — that  of  education,  of  voluntary  as- 
sociation, and  of  appeals  to  reason  and  conscience.  "  Where 
is  your  music  ?  "  said  a  bystander  to  a  soldier  of  the  Eighth 
Massachusetts  Kegiment  as  it  was  hurrying  through  the 
angry  streets  of  Baltimore  to  the  defense  of  the  nation's 
capital  at  the  outbreak  of  our  civil  war.  "  Down  in  the 
breech  of  our  rifles,"  was  the  grim  reply.  And  that  is  how 
we  want  to  carry  our  moral  music  as  we  go  forth  to  the  de- 
fense of  right  and  justice  on  the  battle-fields  of  human  life 
— not  so  much  in  the  drum  and  fife  of  a  political  caucus  and 
a  legislative  hall  as  down  in  the  depths  of  our  souls. 

"  Within  himself  he  found  the  law  of  right." 


528  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

It  is  the  naturally  evolved  successor  to  tlie  method  of  law. 
There  is  no  characteristic  of  our  times  more  marked  than 
the  number,  size,  and  sweep  of  the  reformatory  movements 
that  with  the  decadence  of  politics  and  the  loosening  of  the 
legal  bond  have  sprung  up  into  doing  what  was  once  con- 
sidered to  be  almost  exclusively  the  politician's  and  legis- 
lator's work.  Eeligion,  so  long  divorced  from  morality, 
has  in  our  day  recognized  its  claims  and  begun  pouring  into 
it  the  might  of  its  divine  inspiration.  The  Church  itself  is 
no  longer,  at  least  in  free  countries,  a  state  institution,  or 
governed,  at  least  in  its  Protestant  form,  on  state  principles, 
but  is  simply  a  series  of  voluntary  moral  associations.  And 
wherever  any  new  issue  comes  up  in  the  world  at  large,  or 
any  new  and  difficult  work  presents  itself  needing  to  be 
done,  it  is  the  instinct  of  its  advocates  to  form  among  them- 
selves a  society  to  take  it  in  charge — this  even  when  the 
Government  is  to  be  asked  ultimately  to  act  as  its  agent.  A 
salt  dissolved  in  water  so  that  its  atoms  can  act  freely  accord- 
ing to  their  own  internal  law  does  not  more  surely  arrange 
itself  in  a  crystal  than  humanity  individualized  in  the  medi- 
um of  liberty  does  into  a  voluntary  organization.  It  is  a  phe- 
nomenon going  on  before  our  eyes  to-day  which  transcends 
in  beauty  anything  ever  seen  in  the  chemist's  laboratory,  yet 
is  looked  upon  by  how  many  as  if  it  was  only  society  going 
to  pieces.  And  in  settling  moral  questions,  who  will  say  that 
humanity  thus  crystallized  is  not  a  more  highly  evolved  agen- 
cy than  humanity  in  its  merely  amorphous,  political  state? 

It  is  the  method  of  equality,  of  self-respect,  and  of  manli- 
ness. When  a  thing  is  done  because  of  a  law  imposed  by 
another,  no  matter  how  worthy  in  itself  the  thing  may  be, 
and  no  matter  whether  that  other  is  a  monarch  or  a  ma- 
jority, it  inevitably  places  its  doer  in  a  position  of  inferi- 
ority, makes  him  a  thing  moved  by  an  outside  force  rather 
than  a  man  self-moved.  But  when  it  is  done  from  inward 
principle,  it  makes  each  man  his  own  monarch  and  puts  him 
on  a  par  with  every  other  man.  It  appeals  to  and  develops 
that  which  is  noblest  and  best  in  man — his  power  of  choice 
and  his  own  sense  of  right. 

"  A  voice  spake  in  his  ear, 
And,  lo  !  all  other  voices  far  and  near 
Died  at  that  whisper  full  of  meanings  clear." 

It  brings  together  in  support  of  a  cause  only  those 
who  have  a  heart  and  soul  interest  in  its  success,  those 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  529 

who  love  it  and  can  lay  on  its  altar  the  enthusiasm 
of  love.  It  is  indeed  open  to  fanaticism,  narrowness, 
crankiness;  but  it  is  lifted  realms  above  the  far  worse 
vices,  so  common  in  politics,  of  selfishness,  shallowness, 
and  time-serving.  All  the  noblest  qualities  of  our  human 
nature — altruism,  self-sacrifice,  the  courage  of  conviction, 
and  the  living  for  an  ideal,  all  the  crosses  and  martyr 
stakes  of  our  race,  all  its  noblest  poems  and  most  heroic 
deeds — gather,  if  not  inevitably,  yet  naturally  around  its 
standard.  And,  in  spite  of  the  popular  odium  attaching  to 
the  name  reformer,  if  you  want  to  stand  on  the  mountain 
tops  of  humanity,  want  to  see  how  near  dust  can  come  to 
Deity,  want  to  breathe  an  atmosphere  as  far  removed  from 
politics  as  that  of  Shasta  from  a  sink,  go  into  the  company 
of  men  who 

"  Ere  its  cause  bring  fame  and  profit  and  'tis  prosperous  to  be  just " 

have  sided  with  a  moral  truth — men  like  Phillips,  Garri- 
son, Foster,  Pillsbury,  and  their  associates  in  the  early  days 
of  the  antislavery  cause.  So  with  the  kind  of  morality  that 
is  attained  by  the  moral  method.  It  is  the  real  article.  What 
is  done  by  it  is  done  from  principle,  done  because  the  thing  is 
really  believed  in,  and  not  from  outward  constraint.  Take  the 
man  who  is  temperate  from  inward  conviction,  as  compared 
with  the  one  who  is  temperate  because  the  law  will  not 
allow  him  anything  on  which  to  get  drunk ;  can  there  be 
any  question  as  to  which  is  the  higher  kind  of  man  ?  And 
a  state  all  of  whose  moral  questions  have  been  settled  in 
souls,  can  it  be  otherwise  than  a  better  one  to  live  in  than 
that  which  has  settled  them  only  on  statute  books  ? 

It  is  a  method,  to  be  sure,  whose  outward  instrumentali- 
ties are  insignificant  and  unimposing  ;  one  that,  in  compari- 
son with  the  enginery  and  majesty  of  law — the  police  officer, 
the  court,  the  judge,  the  prison,  the  gallows — is  a  mere 
"  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness."  But  what  has  been  his- 
torically the  most  efficient  moral  agency  this  world  has  ever 
seen,  the  Christian  religion,  was  at  the  start  that  very  thing, 
a  mere  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.  It  despised  the  aid 
of  law — was,  rather,  so  conscious  of  its  own  innate  superiority 
that  it  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  despise  it.  Think  of 
Jesus  as  lobbying  in  the  Sanhedrin  to  get  it  to  enact  his 
golden  rule,  or  of  Paul  as  dropping  the  sword  of  the  spirit 
to  manipulate  a  caucus  for  his  nomination  to  a  position 
where  he  could  introduce  a  bill  against  idolatry.  Instead  of 


530  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

being  helped  by  law,  it  had  from  the  start  all  the  power  of 
law,  yea,  the  very  principle  of  law,  to  contend  against ;  and 
it  did  it  triumphantly,  did  it  even  when  its  foe  was  the 
Roman  Empire,  that  very  embodiment  of  law — went  on 
doing  it  against  the  whole  vast  empire  of  wrong,  till,  desert- 
ing its  own  weapons,  it  began  arming  itself  with  those  of  its 
antagonist.  I  saw  a  place  on  Cape  Ann  a  while  ago  where 
a  soft  pine  seedling  had  lodged  itself  in  a  cleft  of  rock,  the 
most  hopeless,  apparently,  of  all  localities  in  which  to  grow, 
a  bit  of  soft  woody  tissue  surrounded  with  solid  walls  of 
granite  and  with  only  impalpable  light  and  air  to  be  its 
nourishment.  Yet  the  pine  with  the  drill  and  dynamite  of 
its  inner  life  force  had  rent  asunder  the  huge  granite  ledge, 
elbowed  tons  of  it  out  of  the  way,  and,  as  a  tall  tree,  was  wav- 
ing its  evergreen  boughs  in  the  April  sunshine,  unharmed 
even  with  a  scar.  And  that  is  what  moral  force  is  in  the 
ledges  of  wrong — a  tissue  softer  than  that  of  the  pine  seed- 
ling, yet  rending  into  powder  what  defies  the  sharpest  penal- 
ties of  the  statute  book  and  finding  food  where  the  sword  of 
law  finds  only  flint. 

With  such  a  contrast  between  the  two  things,  can  there 
be  any  doubt  as  to  which  is  to  be  sought  after  as  at  least 
the  preferable  one  for  advancing  the  world's  moral  interests  ? 
While  believing  thoroughly  in  woman's  right  to  the  ballot, 
is  it  not  a  mistake  to  measure  her  progress  as  a  social  factor 
by  the  degree  to  which  it  has  been  attained  ?  There  are 
scores  of  places  to  which  she  is  being  admitted — notably  to 
the  college,  the  tcoun ting-room,  the  platform,  and  the  sacred 
desk — that  areVorth  to  her  infinitely  more  than  anything, 
from  polls  to  presidential  chair,  that  politics  has  to  offer. 
And,  however  willing  she  may  be  to  take  it  as  the  symbol  of 
her  equality  with  man,  is  it  worth  while  for  her  to  pay  a 
very  large  price  for  what,  as  an  agency  in  helping  morals 
along,  is  like  a  seat  in  a  country  wagon  to  a  girl  who  has 

§ot  her  hand  on  the  throttle- valve  of  a  locomotive  engine  ? 
o  with  reformers  possessed  of  the  ballot  who  never  suc- 
ceed in  getting  their  ideas  materialized  in  any  political 
measure — go  down  to  the  grave,  after  years  of  struggle,  with 
them  embodied,  perhaps,  only  in  their  own  tottering  forms ; 
they  are  not  on  that  account  valueless  as  moral  factors. 
There  are  men  in  the  world — you  have  some  in  your  own 
ranks — ripe  with  age,  yet  blossoming  continually  with  new 
hopes  and  plans  for  humanity,  orange  trees  in  the  realm 
of  soul,  whose  simple  personality  is  doing  more  for  progress 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  531 

than  any  political  activity  could.  A  vote  in  the  minority  is 
lost ;  a  man  in  the  minority  always  counts.  And  an  asso- 
ciation like  this,  made  up  of  such  men,  young  and  old,  and 
operating  wholly  through  ideas,  is  raising,  if  nothing  more, 
yet  a  raw  material  for  ethics,  without  which  at  last  all  the 
factors  of  it  would  come  to  a  stand.  So  with  the  churches 
that,  refusing  to  meddle  with  politics,  give  their  whole  ener- 
gies to  the  making  of  better  souls.  I  know  it  is  the  custom 
of  progressionists  to  despise  their  work,  and  I  am  very  far 
from  believing  it  is  religion's  whole  sphere.  But  they,  too, 
have  their  place.  What  this  world  wants  more  than  any- 
thing else  for  the  solving  of  its  moral  problems  is  moral  men 
and  women.  Human  nature  is  the  soil  out  of  which  all 
social  fruits  grow ;  and  whatever  makes  that  richer  will 
make  everything  above  it  righter. 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE   Two  METHODS  UNDER  EVOLU- 
TION. 

Nevertheless,  with  all  this  immeasurable  superiority  in- 
trinsically and  philosophically  of  the  moral  over  the  politi- 
cal method  in  dealing  with  the  questions  at  issue,  practical 
sociology  is  very  far  from  saying  that  the  political  one  is 
yet  wholly  a  thing  of  the  past  and  never  now  under  any 
circumstances  to  be  used  for  their  solution.  Adaptation  to 
the  environment  as  well  as  intrinsic  excellence  is  what  here, 
as  well  as  everywhere  else,  has  to  be  taken  into  account. 
First  archism ;  then  legalism  ;  then  anarchism ;  or,  if  the 
words  are  better  liked,  first  imperialism,  then  legalism, 
then  individualism — prince,  politician,  principle — that  is 
the  natural  order  in  which  all  government  unfolds,  that  the 
one  each  part  of  which  has  a  corresponding  phase  of  social 
development  it  is  best  fitted  for.  Arid  as  in  religion  the 
law  is  the  school-master  to  bring  us  to  Christ,  so  in  the  state 
politics  is  naturally  the  path  by  which  we  go  to  principle. 
With  social  development  the  same  everywhere,  the  progress 
from  the  one  to  the  other  would  be  everywhere  the  same. 
But  it  is  notorious  that  while  some  parts  of  society  are  en- 
lightened enough  to  act  on  principle,  others,  even  in  the 
most  advanced  communities,  are  yet  in  that  savage  and  half- 
civilized  condition  for  which  the  personal  ruler  and  the 
strong  arm  of  law  are  best  adapted.  And  where  this  is  the 
case  it  surely  is  the  dictate  of  plain  good  sense  to  use  the 
tool,  whatever  its  intrinsic  imperfection,  which  will  best  do 


532  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

the  task.  "  I  believe  in  blood  as  much  as  any  one  does," 
said  the  horse-trader ;  "  but  when  I  see  a  really  good  animal 
I  go  for  him,  no  matter  how  mongrel  his  ancestry  may  be," 
a  wisdom  that  will  apply  equally  well  to  legal  scrubs  as 
compared  with  the  blood-stock  of  principle.  Electricity  is 
a  higher  motive  power  for  moving  street  cars  than  horse 
muscle,  and  a  dynamo  in  each  car  a  higher  one  than  a  wire 
connecting  it  with  a  central  station.  But,  till  the  separate 
dynamo  is  perfected,  we  use  the  wire ;  and  when  the  wire 
will  not  act,  as  is  the  case  now  and  then,  we  bring  out  the 
old  horses  and  hitch  them  on  in  the  old  way.  And  for  the 
same  reason,  though  moral  principle  is  a  higher  force  than 
law  with  which  to  move  the  car  of  progress,  and  a  moral 
dynamo  in  each  man's  soul  a  better  form  of  it  than  a  cen- 
tral one  at  Albany  or  "Washington,  it  nevertheless  is  a  mat- 
ter of  practical  wisdom,  when  the  dynamo  breaks  down  or 
can  not  be  applied,  to  keep  the  old  political  horses  as  the 
force  on  which  to  fall  back. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  law  can  never  rise  above  the  aver- 
age morals  of  the  state,  never  express  its  most  advanced 
sentiment ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  an  immense  instru- 
ment for  doing  what  in  some  respects  is  even  more  impor- 
tant— the  bringing  of  its  less  advanced  members  up  to  the 
average  and  the  keeping  of  them  from  dragging  the  whole 
into  destruction.  Here  is  a  village  where  moral  suasion 
has  succeeded  in  shutting  up  all  the  drinking  saloons  but 
one.  The  very  fact,  however,  that  the  others  have  been 
closed  makes  it  all  the  more  profitable  to  keep  this  open,  all 
the  more  difficult,  therefore,  for  it  to  be  acted  upon  by 
moral  suasion.  Why  now  should  such  a  premium  on  its 
baseness  be  allowed — why  not  the  great  majority  of  citizens 
who  want  it  closed  get  together  politically  and  shut  it  up 
with  the  power  of  law  ?  Here  is  a  State  where  a  hundred 
factories  have  been  persuaded  not  to  employ  children  under 
twelve  or  fifteen  years  of  age,  but  a  dozen  more  selfish  ones 
persist  in  their  employment,  and  as  a  consequence  are  able 
to  undersell  the  others,  or  else  compel  them  to  reduce  the 
wages  of  their  adult  hands  to  a  level  with  those  of  the  chil- 
dren. Is  not  this  a  case  where  law  can  properly  interfere 
to  put  them  all  on  the  same  footing  ?  Or,  worse  still,  here 
is  a  man  who,  through  ignorance  or  a  flippant  contempt  for 
science,  throws  his  offal  into  a  brook  or  keeps  open  a  filthy 
sewer  till  it  threatens  the  whole  village  with  a  deadly  epi- 
demic. Ought  there  to  be  any  scruple  about  lifting  him 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  533 

up  by  political  action  to  at  least  the  average  height  of  sani- 
tary morals  ?  A  traveler  attacked  by  a  savage  dog,  as  he 
was  passing  peaceably  by  a  farm-house,  seized  his  gun  and 
poured  its  whole  blazing  charge  down  the  creature's  throat. 
"  What  did  you  kill  my  dog  for  ?  "  exclaimed  the  angry 
owner,  rushing  out.  "  To  prevent  his  killing  me,"  was  the 
answer.  "  Well,  why  didn't  you  hit  him  with  the  butt  end 
of  your  gun?"  was  the  next  question.  "  Well,  why  didn't 
he  come  at  me  with  the  butt  end  of  his  body  ?  "  was  the 
neat  reply.  There  are  some  evils  in  society  so  savage  and 
wide-mouthed  that  if  a  man  waits  to  deal  with  them  mor- 
ally there  will  not  be  any  man,  the  same  as  if  the  traveler 
had  waited  to  tame  the  dog,  there  would  not  have  been  any 
traveler  left.  And  in  such  cases,  savage  as  the  method 
seems,  is  there  any  other  alternative  than  to  give  them  the 
blazing  legal  end  of  society's  moral  gun  ? 

Laws  do  indeed  have  a  tendency  to  become  the  prisons 
of  moral  principle,  needing  often  to  be  violently  destroyed 
when  any  new  onward  step  is  to  be  taken.  But  that  is 
true  of  all  forms,  all  institutions,  all  growths,  is  true  of  the 
human  body  itself,  is  true  even  of  the  customs,  habits,  and 
societies  by  which  morality  as  a  principle  acts,  is  true  at  last 
of  the  grand  old  man  who  for  sixty  years  has  stood  at  the 
forefront  of  England's  reforms.  It  is  the  fundamental 
method  of  evolution,  building  up  and  then  tearing  down, 
imprisoning  life  in  one  generation,  and  then  sweeping  its 
forms  all  into  graves  in  order  to  have  it  move  on  into  bet- 
ter ones  in  the  next. 

"  Ever  by  losses  the  right  must  gain, 
Every  good  have  its  birth  in  pain." 

And  its  operation  in  the  field  of  politics,  its  having  the 
laws  which  morality  leaves  in  and  blooms  in  during  its 
spring  become  the  dead  leaves  and  dead  petals  which  it  has 
to  shake  off  in  its  autumn  so  as  to  have  its  tree  grow,  only 
brings  the  political  method  the  more  clearly  within  the 
scope  of  evolution. 

Laws  at  first  produce  only  outward  morality ;  but  out- 
ward morality  kept  up  long  enough  becomes  habit,  exact- 
ly the  same  as  inward  morality  does,  and  habit  inherited 
becomes  nature,  the  inmost  thing  of  all.  It  is  the  method 
that  all  parents  use  in  the  training  of  children,  the  forming 
of  good  habits  through  obedience  to  outward  precepts.  It 
is  closely  connected  with  "  the  influence  of  the  environ- 


534  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

ment,"  the  working  from  the  outward  inward,  which  under 
evolution  is  certainly  one  of  Nature's  recognized  methods 
of  progress.  And  with  society  freed  by  any  means  from 
immoral  surroundings  and  its  young  trained  up  simply  to 
good  habits  for  a  few  generations,  who  can  doubt  that  the 
moral  gain,  if  not  equal  to  that  of  inward  personal  strug- 
gle, would  at  any  rate  be  immense  ? 

There  is  no  denying  that  laws  are  often  badly  adminis- 
tered and  do  harm  ;  but,  with  all  the  tremendous  value  of 
inward  principle,  it  must  be  confessed  that  its  practical 
working  is  sometimes  in  this  respect  very  far  from  being 
perfect.  Who  shall  say  that  custom,  fashion,  public  opin- 
ion, the  channels  entirely  independent  of  law  through 
which  morality  expresses  itself,  are  not  often  as  tyranni- 
cal and  unjust  as  any  legislation  has  ever  been  ?  Take  the 
awful  penalty  that  society  inflicts  on  a  fallen  woman,  laid 
down  in  no  statute  book ;  and  in  all  the  multiplied  crimes 
of  law  against  the  sex,  is  there  anything  that  for  absolute 
damning  wrong  will  compare  with  this  ?  What  is  it  behind 
judge  and  jury  that  in  all  ages  has  burned  and  shot  and 
hanged  the  world's  martyrs  and  reformers  ?  What  did  it 
notoriously  a  few  years  ago  with  the  Chicago  anarchists  ? 
Simply  an  excited  public  sentiment  overriding  all  the  safe- 
guards of  law.  There  is  nothing  in  the  vilest  legislation 
which  is  so  much  to  be  dreaded  as  the  world's  unlegalized 
spasms  of  virtue.  It  is  hardly  twenty  years  since  the  man 
who  did  more  than  all  others  to  open  the  Pacific  Railroad, 
actually  putting  his  money,  as  the  event  has  proved, "  where 
it  would  do  the  most  good,"  the  manliest  man  Congress  had 
that  year,  was  hounded  into  his  grave  without  judge  or  jury 
by  the  country's  conscience.  Trial  by  jury — law's  method — 
is  bad  enough  ;  but  what  is  it  in  comparison  with  trial  by 
newspaper,  the  public's  method  outside  of  law  ?  And  with 
all  the  dreadfulness  of  the  reporter's  pen  as  a  panderer  to 
vice,  is  it  ever  quite  so  dangerous  as  when  it  dips  itself  in 
the  ink  of  righteousness  and  prepares  to  come  out  as  the 
champion  of  virtue — any  damage  it  ever  does  with  its  account 
of  the  murder's  perpetration  that  can  quite  equal  what  it 
does  with  its  account  of  the  murderer's  punishment  ? 

While  political  laws,  also,  are  often  petty,  inquisitive,  and 
a  severe  restriction  on  personal  liberty,  are  they  more  so 
than  the  rules  and  pledges  of  even  the  most  pronounced 
voluntary  associations?  What  State  ever  made  regulations 
for  its  citizens  that  went  down  to  a  finer  point  than  those 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  535 

which  many  temperance  organizations  and  trades-unions 
make  for  themselves  ?  The  fact  is,  it  is  impossible  to  have 
anywhere  the  tremendous  power  which  comes  from  asso- 
ciated action  without  the  sacrifice  to  some  extent  of  indi- 
vidual freedom.  The  most  voluntary  reform  societies 
appealing  to  the  world  by  moral  suasion  do  have,  and  must 
have,  rules  among  themselves  of  some  kind  in  order  to  use 
to  the  greatest  advantage  even  moral  suasion ;  must  have  an 
iron-bound  bucket  with  which  to  draw  water  even  from  the 
wells  of  liberty.  The  degree  of  their  rigor  and  minuteness  de- 
pends not  on  whether  they  are  made  by  the  state  or  by  a  vol- 
untary association,  but  deeper  down  on  the  people  themselves, 
Eussian  nihilism  being  just  as  despotic  as  Russian  imperial- 
ism, and  the  town  meeting  in  America  quite  as  free  as  the 
town  debating  club.  And  so  likewise  the  mean  and  objec- 
tionable things  about  politics — the  caucusing,  partisanship, 
bribery,  log-rolling,  bossism,  and  appeals  to  prejudice  and 
passion — do  not  arise  from  the  nature  of  the  state,  but  from 
the  undeveloped  nature  of  man,  are  to  be  found  in  volun- 
tary associations,  even  in  churches  and  religious  conventions, 
quite  as  devilishly  developed  as  in  ward  rooms  and  legisla- 
tive halls. 

Crowning  all  else,  it  is  to  be  said  on  the  side  of  political 
action  that  it  is  not  infrequently  the  direct  means  by  which 
the  moral  method  does  its  work.  The  politics  of  a  free 
country  is  the  great  public  school  to  which  all  its  citizens 
go  inevitably  as  pupils.  It  is  impossible  to  get  a  law  enacted 
which  involves  in  any  way  their  welfare  without  at  least  some 
discussion  of  its  right  and  wrong  principles.  Every  election- 
eering campaign  is  a  debate  of  its  members  in  which,  mixed 
in  with  the  meanness  and  the  mud-throwing,  the  precious 
stones  of  right  and  virtue  and  moral  obligation  are  flung 
from  side  to  side.  If  the  calendar  of  politicians  is  darkened 
with  names  that  are  the  synonyms  of  cunning  and  self -seek- 
ing, it  is  starred  also  with  such  shining  ones  in  the  ranks  of 
principle  as  those  of  a  Sumner,  a  Gladstone,  a  Cavour.  And 
even  in  the  worst  machinations  of  the  caucus  and  the  lobby 
there  is  of  ten  ^  an  unconscious,  unintended  moral  wisdom 
that  surpasses  in  its  practical  effect  the  sober  designing  of 
the  churches  and  schools,  a  divinity  that  shapes  the  ends  of 
politics  to  morals,  rough  hew  them  with  bribery  and  trickery 
as  their  actors  may,  presidents  elected  from  the  ranks  of 
pot-house  politicians  as  one  of  themselves  whom  the  dignity 
and  responsibility  of  their  position  have  converted  into 
35 


536  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

models  of  official  conduct,  microbes  of  political  vice  that  have 
proved  'the  best  possible  antidotes  of  some  of  the  civil  ones 
that  were  consuming  the  general  body  of  society,  and  seeds  of 
law  sown  in  the  dirt  and  filth  of  selfishness  and  corruption 
that  have  flowered  in  public  virtue  and  fruited  in  moral 
progress. 

CAN  THE  POLITICAL  METHOD  ITSELF  BE  FUKTHER 
EVOLVED  ? 

Is  there  any  improvement  of  politics,  any  further  develop- 
ment of  the  state,  which  can  remove  their  defects  and  make 
them  more  efficient  as  moral  agents  ?  I  do  not  see  how 
state  socialism — that  is,  the  enlargement  of  their  functions — 
is  going  to  do  it.  It  is  a  movement  in  the  very  opposite 
direction  of  that  to  which  evolution  naturally  tends  ;  a  use 
of  law  greater  instead  of  less,  a  working  more  from  without 
instead  of  more  from  within.  The  evils  of  the  political 
method  which  are  now  in  a  few  fields  it  would  transfer  to 
all,  bring  everything  under  the  control  of  the  politician. 
And  just  in  proportion  as  it  relieved  the  individual  of  the 
moral  strain  under  which  he  now  so  often  falls,  it  would  re- 
lieve him  of  the  moral  strength  under  which  he  now  so 
largely  stands. 

Neither  can  I  see  any  reason  for  going  with  Mr.  Spencer 
to  the  other  extreme — that  of  limiting  the  functions  of  the 
state  to  the  punishment  of  crime  and  stigmatizing  all  laws 
for  the  direct  promotion  of  a  people's  welfare  as  among 
"  the  sins  of  legislators."  If  it  is  right  for  the  state  to  stop 
murder  by  shutting  up  murderers,  why  is  it  not  right  for  it 
to  do  it  by  shutting  up  the  saloons  which  make  the  mur- 
derers ?  If  it  can  properly  interfere  with  the  man  who 
maims  another  with  a  club,  then  why  not  with  the  one  who 
maims  another  with  a  polluted  stream  or  a  dangerous  wall  ? 
Or,  if  it  can  support  a  police  officer  and  a  jail  for  the  sake 
of  maintaining  the  peace  of  society,  then  why  not  a  school- 
master and  a  school-room  ?  The  more  evolved  philosophy 
here,  as  everywhere  else,  would  seem  to  be  prevention  rather 
than  cure,  dealing  with  the  fountain  rather  than  the  stream. 
And  on  Mr.  Spencer's  own  ground  that  the  state  is  to  secure 
to  every  man  freedom  to  do  all  he  wills,  provided  he  does  not 
infringe  on  the  equal  freedom  of  every  other  man,  all  laws 
needful  for  this,  and  especially  all  laws  like  those  relating 
to  education,  which  tend  to  make  him  less  desirous  of  in- 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  537 

fringing  on  the  equal  freedom  of  others,  would  seem  fairly 
to  be  within  its  province. 

If  the  state  is  to  be  improved  at  all  as  an  agency  for  deal- 
ing with  moral  questions,  the  principles  of  evolution  point 
plainly  to  more  freedom,  more  reliance  on  the  individual, 
more  the  character  of  a  voluntary  association  as  the  direc- 
tion in  which  the  improvement  is  to  be  sought.  The  worst 
thing  about  it  now  is  its  assumption  that  its  laws  have  a 
special  sanctity  and  authority  by  virtue  of  their  being  made 
by  it,  and  that  it  has  a  natural  right  to  impose  them  on  all 
the  people  within  its  limits  independent  of  their  direct  per- 
sonal consent.  The  conception  of  it  presented  in  such 
works  as  Mulford's  Nation,  and  in  so  many  patriotic  ser- 
mons and  Fourth  of  July  orations,  designed  to  excite  rever- 
ence for  it  as  an  institution  innately  good  and  necessarily  to 
be  obeyed,  is  quite  as  mischievous  as  that  of  the  socialist  at 
the  other  extreme,  who  looks  on  it  as  a  distinct  personality 
which  has  special  duties  it  owes  to  him — is  indeed  a  kind  of 
teaching  that  is  largely  responsible  for  socialism,  the  obliga- 
tion to  support  on  the  one  side  implying  the  obligation  to 
protect  on  the  other.  A  remnant  still  exists  of  the  old 
philosophy  that  it  is  the  state  that  makes  morality.  For 
the  divine  right  of  kings  we  have  substituted  the  divine 
right  of  congresses.  And  as  the  pagan  of  other  days  took 
a  piece  of  wood  he  had  saved  from  the  fire  heap  or  the 
lumber  yard  and  carved  it  with  his  knife  into  an  idol  which 
he  fell  down  and  worshiped  as  his  god,  so  the  citizen  of  to- 
day takes  a  piece  from  the  timber  of  our  common  humanity 
and  shapes  him  with  his  ballot  into  a  legislator  whose  law 
he  bows  down  to  with  a  homage  altogether  different  from 
what  he  would  give  it  as  the  word  of  a  man.  It  is  an  as- 
sumption that  we  need  to  get  entirely  rid  of.  The  state  is 
ourselves,  what  we  are,  and  with  only  such  authority  as  we 
choose  to  let  it  have.  As  Emerson  says,  "  we  ought  to  re- 
member in  dealing  with  it  that  its  institutions  are  not  ab- 
original, that  they  are  not  superior  to  the  citizen,  that  every 
one  of  them  was  once  the  act  of  a  single  man,  and  that  they 
are  all  imitable,  all  alterable."  There  is  no  reason  why  a 
man  should  not  join  it  and  leave  it  as  freely  as  he  does  a 
church  or  a  temperance  society;  no  reason  why,  if  he  re- 
fuses to  receive  its  protection  and  partake  of  its  benefits,  he 
should  be  taxed  for  it,  any  more  than  when  he  declines  to 
buy  any  other  goods.  It  is  toward  this  relation  to  it  that 
all  democracy,  all  civilization  tends.  And  with  the  citizen 


538  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

thus  its  voluntary  member  there  would  be  naturally  the 
same  appreciation  of  its  value  and  responsibility  for  its  con- 
duct,  and  the  same  chance  to  act  in  it  on  principle,  that 
there  are  now  in  all  other  voluntary  associations. 

With  equal  emphasis  evolution  points  to  more  differentia- 
tion in  the  legislative  department  of  the  state  as  a  requisite 
for  its  better  dealing  with  moral  questions.  A  large  part 
of  its  mistakes  and  inefficiencies  now  arise  from  its  trying  to 
act  on  all  its  varied  interests  through  only  one  set  of  men. 
With  the  complexities  of  our  modern  social  life  and  the 
wide  diversity  of  the  matters  to  be  attended  to — coinage  and 
crime,  temperance  and  tariffs,  Indians  and  imports,  seals  and 
silver — what  can  be  more  absurd  than  to  expect  one  body  of 
legislators  to  make  laws  intelligently  on  them  all  ?  Differ- 
ent hands  for  different  work  is  what  is  as  much  needed  in 
the  state  as  in  any  other  workshop.  If  an  Indian  question 
is  to  be  acted  upon,  the  only  way  in  which  to  have  it  done 
properly  is  by  the  election  of  men  for  it  who  have  made  a 
special  study  of  the  Indian  situation ;  if  a  temperance  ques- 
tion, then  of  those  who  have  given  to  temperance  in  all  its 
bearings  their  life  thought.  So  with  all  other  matters  re- 
quiring wide  knowledge  and  nice  discrimination.  Thirty 
years  ago  our  country  had  bitter  experience  of  what  it  was 
to  wage  a  military  war  by  acts  of  a  general  Congress,  setting 
politicians  who  could  manage  a  caucus  to  managing  a  cam- 
paign, and  leaders  who  could  fire  the  country's  heart  to 
being  leaders  who  should  fire  its  cannon.  We  need  to  do 
now  in  our  war  against  wrong  what  we  had  to  do  then  in 
our  war  against  rebels — put  its  conduct  in  the  care  of  moral 
Grants  and  Shermans,  have  West  Points  at  which  to  edu- 
cate civilians  as  well  as  soldiers.  It  is  this  that  is  the  real 
civil-service  reform,  the  one  that  will  bring  law-makers 
within  its  scope,  a  hundredfold  more  important  than  that 
which  includes  only  law  administrators.  Then  when  a  law 
has  been  formulated  it  ought  in  most  cases  to  be  referred 
back  to  the  whole  people  for  its  final  passage — they  who 
ought,  in  the  old  New  England  town-meeting  way,  to  be 
their  own  ultimate  legislative  body.  It  is  a  reference  which 
would  give  them  a  direct  knowledge  of  the  laws  they  are 
living  under,  a  thing  which  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  they 
are  ignorant  of  now,  would  be  a  union  of  the  nation's  select 
and  common  wisdom,  the  voice  of  reason  and  the  voice  of 
the  people,  that  might  with  some  justice  be  called  the  voice 
of  God.  And  moral  laws  public  opinion  had  helped  so 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  539 

directly  to  make,  public  opinion  better  than  any  policeman's 
club  would  help  naturally  to  enforce. 

THE  MANY  MEMBERS  IN  ONE  BODY. 

Summing  up  the  conclusions  reached,  society's  moral 
questions  include  all  those  which  relate  to  how  its  members 
in  their  dealings  with  each  other  shall  best  be  enabled  to 
promote  the  public  good  and  to  secure  from  it  their  own 
highest  well-being.  The  right  of  any  person  to  act  on  such 
questions  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  he  is  not  only  an 
individual  with  his  own  conduct  to  attend  to,  but  a  part 
also  of  the  social  body,  having  interests  that  are  affected  by 
the  conduct  of  others,  and  that  his  will  and  his  work  are 
the  legitimate  higher  channels  of  that  great  indwelling 
power  making  for  righteousness  by  which  the  whole  uni- 
verse is  moved.  Politics  and  the  moral  method  both  have 
their  place  under  evolution  as  agencies  to  be  used  in  their 
settlement,  the  difference  between  them  being  that  the  one 
is  a  stage  farther  along  than  the  other,  and  that  it  works 
from  within  instead  of  from  without.  Each  has  its  imper- 
fections and  limitations,  each  its  special  stage  of  social 
development  to  which  it  is  best  adapted ;  and  while  moral 
principle  is  to  be  looked  forward  to  as  the  ideal  condition, 
political  law  is  to  be  used  whenever  for  the  time  being  it  will 
best  promote  the  great  end  to  be  attained,  just  as  in  the 
education  of  a  child  outward  precept  is  imposed  upon  him 
by  parent  and  friend  till  he  is  able  to  act  always  from  his 
own  inner  sense  of  right,  the  acting  from  his  own  sense  of 
right  being  always  kept  in  view  as  the  end  to  be  reached. 
There  is  no  inconsistency  between  the  two,  no  reason  why 
both  of  them  should  not  join  hands,  when  the  opportunity 
offers,  in  helping  do  their  common  work.  And  the  final 
tendency  of  evolution  here,  as  in  so  many  other  things,  is 
not  to  accentuate  the  differences  of  its  factors,  not  to  give 
the  one  supremacy  by  the  other's  annihilation,  but  to  fill 
each  with  something  of  the  other's  life  and  to  unite  them 
all  on  a  higher  plane  and,  in  a  completer  whole,  evolve 
the  state  into  more  freedom  for  the  individual,  the  indi- 
vidual into  more  voluntary  associations  that,  like  the  state, 
shall  act  through  self-imposed  law,  and  society  at  large  into 
a  completer  yielding  to  that  Divine  Power  within  it  which 
of  itself  makes  for  righteousness.  As  the  audience  of  a 
country  church  one  summer  afternoon  were  laboriously 


540  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

struggling  through  their  congregational  hymn,  the  wheezy 
old  organ  with  its  poor  player  trying  to  lead,  and  several 
scores  of  voices  each  with  its  own  distinct  degree  of  success 
trying  to  follow,  it  chanced  that  Emma  Abbott,  the  famous 
opera  singer,  dropped  into  the  service,  and  suddenly  a  voice 
rich,  sweet,  powerful,  and  thrilling  with  an  accent  of  soul 
no  word  can  describe,  broke  in  with  them  from  among  the 
pews.  It  did  not  hush  the  others,  but  quickened,  inspired, 
strengthened,  led  them — swept  the  hundreds  of  straggling 
voices  and  the  wheezy  old  organ  itself,  glad  now  to  follow, 
into  complete  harmony  with  each  other,  into  a  capacity, 
also,  that  surprised  themselves;  and  there  went  up  to 
heaven  out  of  them  all  a  burst  of  reverential  song  such 
as  the  old  church  in  all  its  eighty  years  of  service  had 
never  echoed  with  before.  And  that  is  what  the  inward 
moving  power  of  evolution,  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul 
of  man,  is  tending  to  do  with  our  wheezy  old  state  organ 
and  its  political  players,  and  with  all  the  hundreds  of 
voluntary  reform  tongues  that  now,  straggling  apart,  are 
trying  to  deal  with  moral  questions ;  it  is  tending  not  to  hush 
them  up,  or  take  their  place,  but  to  quicken  them  into  new 
strength,  unfold  them  into  new  beauty,  and  blend  them 
all  together  in  a  song  that  shall  be  worthy  of  its  glorious 
theme — a  song  of  the  eternal  Eight  that  in  all  this  vast 
world  of  ours  shall  not  be  marred  with  one  discordant  note 
of  wrong. 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  541 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

His  HONOR  DAVID  A.  BOODY,  MAYOR  OF  BROOKLYN  : 

Mayor  Boody,  who  occupied  a  seat  in  the  center  of  the  church,  was 
then  invited  to  address  the  audience.  Mr.  Boody  came  forward  to  the 
platform  amid  applause  and  said : 

With  invited  guests  upon  this  platform  coming,  I  believe,  from  dis- 
tant cities,  and  at  this  hour  of  the  evening,  it  would  not  be  proper  for 
me  to  detain  you.  I  will  only  do  so  long  enough  to  express  my  ap- 
preciation of  the  work  of  this  society  and  of  that  which  they  have 
already  accomplished,  and  to  add  that  I  believe  that  moral  questions 
are  the  controlling  ones  in  government.  I  believe  that  they  very 
largely  determine  the  character  and  usefulness  and  the  triumphs  that 
our  great  parties  have  won.  In  this  respect  possibly  I  differ  slightly 
from  the  conclusions  which  have  been  presented  in  the  very  able  paper 
to  which  we  have  listened.  I  believe  that  both  of  the  great  parties 
had  their  origin  in  the  consideration  of  ethical  questions.  I  believe 
that  whenever  they  have  been  true  to  themselves  and  to  the  considera- 
tion of  moral  questions  they  have  won  their  great  triumphs.  If  we 
had  time  to  notice  the  history  of  the  two  great  parties  we  should 
find  that  it  was  in  the  consideration  of  these  questions  as  they  refer  to 
the  relations  which  man  sustains  to  man  and  which  man  sustains  to 
government,  in  the  consideration  of  such  questions  that  they  have  had 
their  origin.  If  we  should  refer  to  the  life  of  the  great  apostle  of 
the  older  party  of  the  two,  we  should  find  that  he  prepared  himself 
for  his  usefulness  upon  a  national  scale  by  the  work  which  he  per- 
formed in  connection  with  the  government  of  his  native  State;  in 
laboring  to  repeal  those  laws  which  prevented  equal  rights  between 
men — such  laws  as  entail,  primogeniture,  the  prevention  of  religious 
freedom,  and  kindred  statutes — we  will  find  that  he  was  continually 
dealing  with  those  questions  which  relate  to  right  and  wrong  between 
citizens,  and  we  will  find  that  the  great  party  which  he  established 
has  lived  until  this  day,  because  it  has  sought  on  memorable  occasions 
to  be  true  to  the  great  principles  which  he  advocated.  And  if  we 
turn  to  the  other  great  party  we  shall  find  that  it,  like  the  other,  came 
into  existence  in  a  great  emergency  in  our  history,  because  it  also 
undertook  to  defend  moral  questions  in  government.  And  so  I  am 
not  in  the  slightest  degree  discouraged.  I  believe  in  working  through 
these  great  organized  forces.  I  believe  it  is  our  duty  to  work  where  we 


542  Moral  Questions  in-  Politics. 

can  do  the  most  good,  all  of  us  laboring  to  keep  our  party,  whichever 
it  is,  up  to  that  higher  standard  which  is  our  ideal,  making  it  true  to 
its  history,  true  to  the  principles  which  it  has  professed.  I  wish  I 
might  more  fully  discuss  this  interesting  question.  I  wish  I  could 
refer  to  the  great  victories  each  party  has  won,  to  the  great  question 
which  is  before  the  English  nation  to-day,  to  that  issue  which  was 
discussed  before  our  people  two  years  ago  and  which  may  be  discussed 
again,  simply  with  reference  to  the  moral  features  which  each  presents 
to  the  people.  But  in  the  time  allotted  to  me  I  can  not  on  this 
occasion.  Let  me  close  by  saying  I  am  thankful  for  the  work  of  this 
society ;  for  the  opportunity  which  it  gives  all  our  people  for  becom- 
ing familiar  with  these  great  questions  and  with  the  principles  and 
policies  of  parties ;  for  the  opportunity  which  it  gives  to  our  people  to 
discuss  these  questions  free  from  the  excitements  and  prejudices  of 
great  political  campaigns.  We  should  have  these  institutions  in  our 
midst  and  appreciate  their  opportunities.  If  examples  of  this  kind 
can  be  followed  by  other  communities,  I  feel  sure  that  the  truth  will 
be  reached,  that  justice  will  prevail,  and  that  our  institutions  will  be 
saved.  [Applause.] 

REV.  JAMES  T.  BIXBY,  PH.  D. : 

Between  the  active  worker  at  the  polls  and  the  caucus  room,  and 
the  lazy,  indifferent  respectabilities  who  always  boycott  the  political 
columns  in  the  daily  journals,  and  on  election  day  go  to  Tuxedo,  or 
pigeon-shooting,  or  for  a  drive  in  the  country,  there  would  seem  very 
little  in  common.  But  there  is  one  subject  on  which  they  seem  quite 
agreed ;  and  that  is  that  politics  and  morality  have  nothing  to  do 
with  one  another.  Our  relations  to  the  State  and  those  to  God  and 
duty  are  quite  separate  things.  The  church  is  a  place  where  we  should 
get  ready  for  heaven,  not  learn  to  live  rightly  on  earth.  The  moral- 
ist had  better  keep  clear  of  politics  if  he  wishes  to  maintain  his  reputa- 
tion. Parties  have  no  use  for  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  principle 
in  politics  is  an  iridescent  dream. 

Now,  if  any  one  cares  to  maintain  this  separation  between  moral 
questions  and  politics  as  an  abstract  possibility,  I  am  ready  to  grant 
that  there  may  be  ideal  societies  where  the  two  might  not  mingle, 
though  I  can  hardly  conceive  it.  But  certainly  in  human  society  as 
we  know  it,  as  it  has  always  existed,  and  will  always  exist,  till  selfish- 
ness, ambition,  and  greed  cease  to  be,  the  two  have  never  been  sepa- 
rated. As  a  moralist  1  have  no  objection  to  the  politician  saying,  "  I 
pursue  politics  for  polities'  sake,  and  intend  to  have  nothing  to  do 
with  moral  questions."  But  he  never  does  avoid  these  moral  questions. 
He  is  always  invading  the  sphere  of  right  and  wrong  with  some  propo- 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  543 

sition  of  reform,  or,  more  commonly,  with  some  scheme  of  private 
plunder  or  class  legislation. 

Wherever  there  is  a  question  of  justice  or  injustice,  of  purity  or  im- 
purity, of  honesty  or  dishonesty,  there  we  see  the  proper  sphere  of 
morals.  And  if  the  politician  sees  fit  to  enter  that  sphere  and  bring 
back  any  of  these  questions  of  right  and  wrong  into  the  political  arena, 
and  ask  the  decision  of  legislatures  and  congresses  upon  them,  that 
does  not  make  them  any  less  moral  questions  then  they  were  before 
the  politicians  took  them  up. 

However  it  may  be  theoretically,  yet  practically,  look  where  you 
will,  and  all  the  great  questions  presented  to  the  voter  to-day  are 
moral  questions.  Look  at  national  politics.  Shall  the  man  who  has 
contracted  to  work  for  a  hundred  dollars  a  month  for  the  next  twelve 
months,  expecting  to  get  it  in  good  hard  money,  be  forced  to  take,  in- 
stead of  gold  or  its  equivalent,  so  many  pieces  of  silver  worth  only 
seventy  cents  or  less  in  the  money  of  the  world?  If  that  is  not  a 
moral  question,  I  should  like  to  know  what  is. 

Shall  our  industrious  mechanics,  who  through  the  savings  banks 
have  lent  our  bankers  and  capitalists  some  twelve  hundred  millions  of 
dollars,  be  defrauded  when  pay-day  comes  of  over  three  hundred  mill- 
ions of  the  debt  due  them  by  a  swindling  Bland  silver  bill  I  Surely 
such  extortion  is  a  moral  question,  just  as  much  when  done  by  law  of 
Congress  as  if  by  private  force  or  fraud. 

Or  take  the  tariff ;  the  River  and  Harbor  bill :  the  steamship  bounty 
bill ;  half  the  bills  before  Congress — what  are  they  at  bottom  but  a 
question  of  robbing  Peter  to  pay  Paul;  of  getting  some  personal 
advantage  at  the  expense  of  the  great  public ;  questions  on  which  the 
one  maxim  that  ought  most  to  be  considered,  but  which  is  least  often 
considered,  is  the  golden  rule :  "  Do  unto  others  as  you  would  have 
others  do  unto  you  "  1 

Or  take  State  politics :  shall  a  man  rob  the  mails  and  turn  a  minor- 
ity of  votes  into  a  majority,  and  from  that  majority  that  received  the 
stolen  goods  be  rewarded  by  a  judgeship  as  the  price  of  his  crime  ? 
What  else  but  that  is  to  be  one  of  the  questions  we  are  to  vote  on  at 
the  polls  next  fall  ?  You  may  call  that  politics,  but  it  is  none  the  less 
a  question  of  very  plain  public  morality. 

No ;  moral  questions  can  not  be  ruled  out  of  politics,  for  the  poli- 
ticians themselves  will  not  allow  it.  They  so  persistently  invade  the 
moral  realm  with  their  brazen  violations  of  justice  as  to  keep  these 
moral  questions  always  before  the  public.  And  it  is  not  alone  the 
moralists  and  the  men  of  principle  who  make  the  outcry,  who  raise 
the  cry  of  violated  rights ;  but  the  politicians  themselves.  Not  the 
victorious  half  of  them,  to  be  sure.  As  long  as  they  are  on  the  top 


544  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

wave  and  it  is  the  other  party  that  suffers,  politics  has  nothing  to  do 
with  morals.  Might  is  right;  success  in  the  campaign  justifies  all 
tricks  and  cheats,  and  Czarism  is  necessary  to  vigorous  government. 

But  let  defeat  at  the  polls  turn  the  tables,  and  they  themselves  be- 
come the  lamb  to  be  shorn,  not  the  shearer  to  shear ;  and  now  the 
long-forgotten  words — violated  right,  "  eternal  justice  " — are  recalled 
from  the  limbo  to  which  they  had  been  consigned,  and  the  party 
orators  shout  themselves  hoarse  over  the  despotisms,  usurpations,  and 
iniquities  of  the  other  side. 

One  of  the  wise  words  of  Mazzini  was :  "  We  ought  to  drop  the  phrase 
human  rights  and  substitute  for  it  human  duties."  The  one,  to  be 
sure,  implies  the  other.  There  can  be  no  duties  without  correspondent 
rights,  and  conversely.  But  it  makes  a  great  difference  which  we 
attend  to — on  which  we  put  the  emphasis.  To  take  as  our  motive  the 
pursuit  and  enjoyment  of  our  rights  and  ignore  our  duties  is  to  foster 
selfishness,  egotism,  and  anarchic  license.  That  is  too  much  the  tend- 
ency here  and  now.  With  what  clamor  do  the  saloon-keepers  and 
the  mistresses  and  habitues  of  brothels  inveigh  against  encroachments 
on  their  personal  liberties,  the  spies  who  intrude  into  their  privacy 
and  would  turn  our  police  and  laws  into  shields  of  crime  rather  than 
suppressors  of  crime !  American  freedom !  Yes,  that  is  a  noble  word. 
But  has  it  not  degenerated  to-day  into  little  more  than  the  inviolate 
license  of  every  man  to  be  his  own  scoundrel  and  the  corrupter  of  his 
neighbor  I  No ;  it  is  not  of  our  rights  we  should  think,  but  of  our 
duties. 

The  people  that  would  make  their  land  the  home  of  justice,  order, 
and  a  higher  civilization  must  think  instead  of  their  duties ;  personal, 
social,  and  national  obligations ;  their  duties  to  the  young  and  the  in- 
nocent ;  to  the  weak  and  the  oppressed ;  to  the  cause  of  temperance 
and  purity ;  and  equity  to  all  without  regard  to  party,  money,  color, 
or  race. 

What  reason  at  all  is  there  for  the  existence  of  government  t  That 
the  strong  may  have  their  own  way  ?  That  the  cunning  may  win  what 
unscrupulous  cunning  can  ?  If  so,  better  dissolve  society  and  welcome 
anarchy.  Let  us  say,  Hail  to  the  bomb-throwers.  Go  back  to  the 
primitive  savagery,  when  the  question  between  man  and  man  was, 
Can  I  kill  and  eat  you,  or  you  kill  and  eat  me  ?  If  it  is  well  to  give 
brute  force  and  cunning  full  sway,  let  us  have  anarchy.  Society  has 
been  founded  and  maintained  for  an  opposite  purpose :  to  establish 
justice,  to  make  right  and  equity  prevail.  Its  fundamental  thesis  is, 
the  equal  rights  and  equal  duties  of  all ;  and  it  reaches  its  ideal  only 
when  the  humblest  and  the  weakest  shall  be  as  sure  of  that  justice  as 
the  strongest. 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  545 

In  filling  all  civic  offices,  therefore,  the  chief  qualifications  are  not 
smartness,  but  honesty  and  faithfulness.  The  sharper  a  knave  is,  the 
deeper  and  the  more  deadly  is  the  cut  he  makes  into  the  national  wel- 
fare. We  have  heard  more  than  enough  of  education  as  the  devil- 
killer.  Unless  a  man's  heart  is  sound  he  is  more  apt  to  use  his  clever 
intellect  not  to  kill  the  devil,  but  to  close  a  bargain  with  him  for  the 
plunder  of  his  neighbors. 

The  precious  metal  that  alone  makes  political  structures  valuable  is 
civic  integrity.  Without  it  government  degenerates  into  the  legalized 
plunder  of  one  portion  of  the  community  by  another  portion,  and  loses 
all  respect  for  individual  rights.  A  nation  may  endure  high  taxes  and 
unwise  laws ;  it  may  bear  up  under  the  load  of  a  privileged  aristocracy — 
nay,  of  an  absolute  monarchy ;  but  it  can  not  experience  the  general 
loss  of  honesty  in  its  rulers  without  verging  toward  destruction ;  and 
when  the  general  public  becomes  indifferent  to  the  clean  reputation  of 
its  public  officers  and  smiles  at  the  mention  of  a  candidate's  barrel  as 
if  that  were  the  expected  method  of  winning  an  election,  and  becomes 
ready  to  condone  the  falsification  of  public  records  and  the  corrupt 
bargains  with  the  law-breakers  and  the  vicious  classes  as  long  as  it 
keeps  their  party  on  top,  there  has  already  begun  in  the  body  politic 
that  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart  which  is  the  sure  symptom  of  na- 
tional decay. 

I  have  no  great  admiration  for  Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling ;  but  he  gave 
us  a  good  deal  of  unvarnished  truth  when  he  characterized  the  gov- 
ernment of  New  York  as  "  not  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  peo- 
ple, and  for  the  people,  but  a  despotism  of  the  alien,  by  the  alien,  and 
for  the  alien,  tempered  with  occasional  insurrections  on  the  part  of 
the  decent  people.'*  We  are  proud  to  call  ourselves  a  nation  of  sov- 
ereigns. Let  us  remember  what  was  said  to  Alexander  when  he  had 
the  ambition  to  be  deified :  If  Alexander  wishes  to  be  a  god,  let  him 
be  a  god.  If  you  are  a  sovereign,  act  a  sovereign's  part.  Prove  your 
title  to  royalty  by  the  protection  you  give  the  weak,  by  the  justice  you 
mete  out  to  lawbreakers,  wearing  the  purple  of  honor  and  courage 
and  the  crown  of  untarnished  .integrity.  If  you  are  a  sovereign,  be 
ashamed  to  let  yourself  be  browbeaten  by  bosses,  cheated  by  false 
counting  and  the  contorted  gerrymander.  Don't  any  longer  be  con- 
tent to  abdicate  your  authority  to  some  illiterate  despot  selected  by  a 
little  knot  of  conspirators  in  some  drinking  saloon  amid  clouds  of 
smoke  and  drinks  of  whisky.  And  don't  fancy  yourself  free  because 
you  go  through  the  form  of  voting  once  a  year,  while  you  and  every 
one  else  knows  that  you  can't  get  the  most  useful  law  or  simplest  act 
of  justice  passed  through  the  Legislature  or  the  Common  Council 
without  first  becoming  a  member  of  some  political  wigwam  or  sub- 


546  Moral  Questions  in  Politics. 

scribing  a  good  round  sum  to  the  campaign  expenses  of  the  dominant 
party. 

The  great  need  to-day  is  a  revival  of  civic  conscience,  of  the  public 
sense  of  responsibility,  and  the  old  sentiment  that  official  position  is  a 
field  of  public  duty.  We  need  to  remember  that  no  nation  can  afford 
to  violate  persistently  the  moral  law.  An  individual  may  escape  the 
retributions  of  violated  righteousness,  for  his  life  is  short ;  the  fruit 
may  not  ripen  till  he  is  in  his  grave,  and  only  his  child  or  grandchild 
may  suffer.  But  a  nation  always  has  time  enough  to  reap  the  fruit  of 
its  own  wrong-doing. 

Our  young  men  often  regret  that  the  stirring  days  of  the  antislav- 
ery  crusade  and  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  are  past.  But  here  is  a 
"  present  crisis "  equally  as  momentous  as  that  which  Lowell  sung. 
Here  is  a  campaign  equally  honorable,  making  as  plain  and  noble  a 
call  on  every  chivalric  heart. 

Let  us  no  longer  foolishly  glory  in  the  bigness  of  our  country,  the 
size  of  its  distilleries,  and  the  thousands  of  hogs  it  packs  every  week. 
This  worship  of  bigness  is  the  most  silly  of  modern  idolatries.  If  we 
have  not  something  nobler  to  boast  of,  if  we  can  not  show  a  higher 
civilization,  a  more  general  education,  a  more  ardent  patriotism,  and 
a  cleaner  public  honor  than  the  effete  monarchies  we  despise,  we  are 
but  rotting  while  still  unripe. 

If  we  are  more  than  human  sponges  we  ought  to  be  unwilling  to 
suck  all  that  we  can  from  our  country  and  give  nothing  back  to  it. 
We  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  treat  our  native  soil  as  the  California 
miner  treats  a  worked-out  quartz  vein — as  a  mere  hole  in  the  ground, 
to  be  abandoned  as  soon  as  all  has  been  extracted  from  it  that  it  can 
yield. 

Gratitude,  patriotism,  and  a  wise  self-interest,  all  call  us  to  this 
battle  for  the  higher  civilization  of  our  new  world.  Do  you  say  it  is 
a  hopeless  struggle  ?  Recall  those  words  with  which  Garrison  opened 
his  batteries  on  slavery  when  he  began  the  Liberator : 

"  I  am  in  earnest.  I  will  not  equivocate,  I  will  not  compromise,  I 
will  not  excuse,  I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch,  and  I  will  be  heard." 

Let  our  patriotic  citizens  take  up  the  work  in  this  spirit,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  what  the  issue  will  be.  It  takes  some  fighting  to  win  a 
fray.  But  if  they  will  fight  as  Garrison  and  Lowell  and  Sumner  did, 
there  will  be  won  as  glorious  and  needed  a  victory  as  that  which  has 
put  the  laurel  of  fame  on  their  revered  heads. 

REV.  I.  K.  FUNK,  D.  D. : 

I  can  certainly  indorse  much  of  what  has  been  said,  and  at  this  hour 
can  scarcely  present  any  objections  which  I  might  entertain  unless 


Moral  Questions  in  Politics.  547 

you  propose  an  evolution  of  this  meeting  into  an  all-night  session. 
The  preacher  should  enter  into  politics,  for  politics  is  part  of  the  busi- 
ness of  every  American.  The  politicians  fear  the  influence  of  the  pul- 
pit on  politics.  A  Texas  "  statesman  "  has  recently  said :  "  We  must 
drive  the  preacher  back  into  his  pulpit."  But  he  won't  stay  there ; 
he  is  going  to  help  purify  politics.  The  age  of  muscle  was  first,  then 
came  the  age  of  brain,  and  now  we  are  to  have  the  age  of  the  heart. 
Moral  questions  must  increasingly  come  into  politics.  Mayor  Boody 
said  that  the  great  parties  had  their  genesis  in  moral  issues.  The 
question  with  me  is,  Where  do  they  stand  on  the  great  moral  ques- 
tions now  ?  An  organization  founded  on  a  moral  issue  is  generally 
most  earnest  and  devoted  in  its  early  days ;  it  strikes  twelve  first,  then 
eleven,  and  so  on,  until  it  finally  runs  down  and  its  usefulness  ceases. 
The  law  of  conscience  should  be  applied  to  parties  as  well  as  to  indi- 
viduals. Government,  after  all,  is  only  a  committee  of  citizens  ap- 
pointed to  rule  ;  we  must  be  sure  that  they  are  on  the  right  side — that 
is,  the  side  of  right.  I  am  not  sure  that  we  can  get  conscience  into 
the  old  parties.  Perhaps  it  would  be  cheaper  to  get  rid  of  the  parties. 
As  the  old  farmer  said  to  the  family  doctor  who  had  called  to  see  his 
sick  son, "  Doctor,  if  ye  can  cure  Ike  fer  less  than  the  funeral  expenses, 
go  ahead  and  do  it."  But  I  believe  that  it  is  possible  to  get  conscience 
into  politics  and  that  things  are  gradually  to  shape  themselves  to  that 
end.  The  polls  should  be  made  the  most  sacred  place  on  earth.  We 
must  "  hitch  our  wagon  to  a  star,"  as  Emerson  said.  With  our  eyes 
fixed  on  the  ideal  we  shall  eventually  get  che  political  wagon  out  of 
the  mire. 

ME.  KIMBALL,  in  conclusion : 

I  will  only  say  that  in  the  paper  as  read  there  were  omitted  several 
paragraphs,  on  account  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  which  would,  I  think, 
modify  or  render  unnecessary  some  of  the  criticisms  which  have  been 
made.  I  thank  the  audience  and  critics  for  their  kind  reception  of 
the  lecture. 


INDEX, 


INDEX. 


ABBOTT,  REV.  LTMAN,  D.  D.,  on  the  race  problem  in  the  South,  385. 

Abolitionists :  their  attitude  toward  American  slavery,  387  ;  the  dissolution  of 

their  organization  criticised,  387,  388  note  ;  explained  by  Dr.  Janes,  402  ;  their 
.  wisdom,  445^46  ;  their  statesmanship  recognized,  447  ;  honor  due  them,  461 ; 

their  political  independence,  504-505  ;  their  era  and  ours  compared,  505  ;  their 

moral  earnestness,  529. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  his  concessions  to  slavery,  446. 
Adams,  John,  409,  438. 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  446. 
Afric- American,  evolution  of  the,  317-345. 
Afro- American,  342,  343,  385. 
American  Commonwealth,  94,  165,  168,  421,  422. 
Amphictyonic  council,  as  related  to  representative  government,  62. 
Anarchism,  forms  of,  prevalent  in  America,  11-16  ;  dangers  of  these  forms,  62  ; 

philosophical  anarchism  the  goal  of  evolution,  531-536 ;  extreme  forms  of, 

deprecated,  544. 

Ancient  and  modern  cities  compared,  149-150. 
Andrse,  M.,  on  the  Danish  system  of  representation,  66  note. 
Andrews,  E.  Benjamin,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  on  the  duty  of  a  public  spirit,  3-17. 
A  Plea  for  Liberty,  180,  411. 
Applied  sociology,  the  study  of,  23-52. 
Aristotle,  on  man  and  society,  7,  520. 
Art,  as  related  to  science,  351-354  ;  to  government,  352-353. 
Assembly,  representative,  in  France,  58. 
Assignats,  274-275. 

Atwater,  Prof.  W.  O.,  on  the  effects  of  soil  exhaustion  on  our  food-supply,  178-179. 
Australian  ballot  system,  66,  88,  98, 102. 

BAGEHOT,  WALTER,  on  the  authority  of  custom,  405  ;  on  the  utility  of  free  discus- 

.    sion,  406. 
Ballot,  its  debauchery  a  crime,  17  ;  the  Australian  system,  66,  88,  98,  102  ;  second 

choice  in,  98-103  ;  woman's  right  to,  530. 
Banks  and  banking,  268-282. 

Barbarization  of  land,  115,  125-126,  131-143,  385,  400-402. 

Barrows,  Rev.  Samuel  J.,  on  the  evolution  of  the  Afric- American,  317-336,344-345. 
Barter,  the  primitive  method  of  exchange,  255-256. 
Baxter,  Sylvester,  on  city  government,  155  ;  on  the  Berlin  municipality,  157  ;  on 

municipal  lighting,  176,  177,  and  note. 

Bayard,  Hon.  Thomas  H.,  on  the  restriction  of  immigration,  300. 
Beecher,  Rev.  Henry  Ward,  on  immigration,  308  ;  on  free  trade,  388  note  ;  on  the 

higher  law,  425. 

Bellows,  Henry  S.,  on  the  Republican  party,  477-478. 

Berlin,  a  model  of  municipal  government,  19,  154,  157  ;  its  system  of  public  light- 
ing, 177. 
Bible,  its  political  ideals,  3-7,  55  ;  on  the  earth,  115  note ;  on  the  origin  of  the 

black  races,  337  ;  its  use  in  the  public  schools,  414,  418 ;  its  natural  origin, 

510-511. 
Bicameral  system,  as  related  to  representative  government,  74 ;  in  municipal 

legislation,  165,  166,  168,  169. 

Bixby,  Rev.  James  T.,  Ph.  D.,  on  moral  questions  in  politics,  542-546. 
Elaine,  Hon.  James  G.,  104,  506. 

36 


552  Index. 

Boody,  Hon.  David  A.,  on  moral  questions  in  politics,  541-542. 

Bounties  and  subsidies,  452. 

Boroughs,  original  meaning  of,  160  and  note  ;  English  origin  of,  160  ;  in  America, 

160  ;  number  of,  in  England,  162  ;  original  form  of,  in  England,  167. 
Bradford,  Gov.  William,  59. 
Bribery  in  elections,  16,  89. 
Bright,  John,  244. 
Bryce,  Prof.  James,  M.  P.,  on  political  parties,  94  ;  on  municipal  government,  165 ; 

on  legislative  functions  in  English  cities,  168  ;  his  American  Commonwealth, 

95,  165,  168,  421,  422. 
Buckle,  his  historical  method,  142, 143  note  ;  on  the  nature  of  reforms,  527. 

CAREY,  HENRY  C.,  on  man  and  society,  151 ;  on  social  intercourse,  200. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  his  arraignment  of  Democracy,  72. 

Carnot,  President,  81. 

Catholics,  Roman,  and  the  public  schools,  414-416. 

Caucus,  its  political  status,  93-94 ;  legalization  of,  advocated,  183  ;  its  objection- 
able features,  535. 

Cavour,  Count,  535. 

Chad  wick,  Rev.  John  W.,  on  public  spirit,  18 ;  on  education  and  citizenship, 
405^25,  431. 

Character  and  citizenship,  181-182,  419-420. 

Cheapness,  as  affected  by  the  tariff,  206-209,  221,  222,  236-238. 

Chena,  120  note. 

Chinese  immigration,  295-297,  300,  303,  308,  310,  311,  312  ;  effects  of  legislation  con- 
cerning,  525-526. 

Choate,  Joseph  H.,  on  neglect  of  political  duties,  96. 

Christianity  and  evolution,  517. 

Church,  its  relation  to  representative  government,  60,  61. 

Cicero,  on  the  stupidity  of  the  ancient  Britons,  341. 

City,  the  ancient  and  modern,  compared,  149-150 ;  influence  of,  on  civilization, 
150-152 ;  its  position,  judged  by  philosophy  of  evolution,  152-154  ;  European 
and  American,  154-156,  162,  163  ;  quasi-militant  structure  of  European  cities, 
156-157  ;  application  of  scientific  method  to  its  problems,  158-159  ;  complexity 
of  these  problems  in  America,  159-162  ;  its  government  by  partisan  methods, 
494. 

City  government,  the  problem  of,  149-191 ;  as  related  to  political  independence, 
494. 

Civil  government  in  the  United  States,  165,  421. 

Civil  service  reform,  28,  170,  448,  496-497,  538. 

Clarkson,  Hon.  James  S.,  in  commendation  of  these  lectures,  v. 

Clay,  Henry,  442,  443. 

Cleveland,  Hon.  Grover,  104,  218  ;  his  practical  temper,  448  ;  his  Democratic  prin- 
ciples, 448 ;  his  presidency  ends  the  slavery  debate,  470  ;  his  relation  to  the 
tariff  issue,  502 ;  his  party  leadership.  505 ;  his  relation  to  the  Mugwumps,  506. 

Cobden,  Richard,  his  political  independence,  492. 

Collateral  readings,  2,  22,  54,  84,  110,  148, 194,  230, 254,  290,  316,  348,  404,  434,  464,  482, 
508. 

Colonization  of  Afric-Americans  as  a  remedy  for  the  race  problem,  318,  343,  379 
note. 

Commons,  House  of,  its  constitution,  57  ;  its  evolution,  58. 

Conscience  in  politics,  486-489,  546. 

Contents,  ix. 

Coomry,  120  note. 

Copernicus,  143. 

Corrupt  practices,  legislation  against,  89-90. 

Cotton-gin,  influence  of,  in  perpetuating  slavery,  135,  477. 

DARWIN,  CHARLES,  his  doctrine  of  evolution,  351  ;  his  intellectual  independence, 

487. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  184,  344,  355  note,  437. 
De  Coulanges,  Fustel,  on  the  ancient  city,  49. 
Democratic  party,  435-462. 

De  Montfort,  Simon,  his  relation  to  representative  government,  56. 
Destiny  of  the  lower  races,  373-375. 

De  Tocqueville,  Alexis,  on  the  despotism  of  majorities,  62. 
Direction  of  social  movement,  32-34. 
Direct  taxation.  247. 

Diversification  of  industries  as  affected  by  a  tariff,  204-206. 
Dred  Scott  decision,  its  anti-democratic  character,  446. 
Duty  of  a  public  spirit,  3-17. 


Index.  553 

ECCLES,  DR.  ROBERT  G.,  on  the  study  of  applied  sociology,  23-49,  52  ;  on  the  Aus- 
tralian ballot,  106  ;  on  the  land  problem,  143-144  ;  on  chemistry  in  food-pro- 
ductioti,  150  ;  in  criticism  of  free  trade,  225-226  ;  on  the  monetary  problem, 
284-285  ;  on  the  immigration  problem,  310-311. 

Educational  qualification  for  suffrage,  343,  377,  378,  409. 

Education  and  habit,  27-31. 

Education  as  related  to  citizenship,  405-431. 

Education  of  the  Southern  Negroes,  325-334,  365,  367. 

Elections  :  the  machinery  of,  98-103  ;  in  American  cities,  183-184  ;  early  political 
contests  in  America,  442-446  ;  recent  national  contests,  447-448,  474  ;  influence 
of  the  independent  on,  483-486,  488-491,  497-500  ;  moral  questions  involved  in, 
533-539,  542-547. 

Elisha,  a  type  of  the  good  citizen,  3-5. 

Emancipation,  388  note. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  on  eloquence,  56 ;  on  socialism,  67 ;  on  the  wealth  of 
Nature,  114,  117  ;  a  lady's  remark  to,  158  ;  his  individualism,  411,  412,  521 ;  on 
the  nature  of  institutions,  537  ;  on  elevated  aims,  547. 

English  constitution  as  related  to  the  American  system,  10. 

Ethics,  of  the  land  problem,  126,  131  et  seq.,  191  ;  of  the  tariff  question,  215-219, 
224  ;  of  the  immigration  problem,  310,  312  ;  of  the  race  problem  in  the  South, 
379-382  ;  as  related  to  politics,  506-547. 

Ethiopians,  origin  and  characteristics  of,  338-339. 

Ethnology,  as  related  to  the  race  problem,  359-373. 

Evarts,  Hon.  William  M.,  on  the  bicameral  system,  169. 

Evolution,  influence  of  human  thought  on,  11  ;  nature  of  social  evolution,  24  et 
seq. ;  influence  of  man's  desires  on,  51,  52  ;  progressive  nature  of,  52  ;  of  rep- 
resentative government,  55-62 ;  relativity  of  governmental  evolution,  80-81  ; 
of  land,  122  and  note  ;  of  sources  of  supply,  125  ;  of  American  cities,  166-186  ; 
of  the  Af  ric-American,  317-345  ;  as  related  to  the  race  problem,  353-382  ;  its 
definition  of  moral  questions,  511-514  ;  its  relation  to  law,  521,  531-536. 

Evolution  of  the  Afric-American,  317-345. 

Executive  functions  in  American  cities,  164-165,  167,  169,  170. 

FACTS,  the  basis  of  sociology,  34-40. 

Fairchild,  Hon.  Charles  S.,  on  municipal  government,  188-189. 

Fawcett,  Prof.  H.,  on  Hare's  system  of  representation,  64  note. 

Federalist,  The,  62,  462. 

Federal  party,  436,  443,  444,  446,  453,  457,  460,  461,  462,  465,  467. 

Fiske,  Prof.  John,  in  commendation  of  these  lectures,  v  ;  on  political  economy, 
criticised  by  J.  A.  Skilton,  142,  143  note ;  on  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  155  ;  on  the  bicameral  system  in  American  cities,  165  ;  on  the  relation 
of  national  to  city  politics,  171  note ;  his  work  on  civil  government,  421 ;  his 
historical  works,  422. 

Fortune,  T.  Thomas,  his  term  Afro- American,  342 ;  on  the  future  of  the  Negro 
race  in  America,  344. 

Francisco,  M.  J.,  on  municipal  lighting,  176. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  74,  184,  244. 

Fremont,  Gen.  John  C.,  104,  478. 

Free-Soil  party,  466-468. 

Free  trade,  as  related  to  taxation  and  revenue,  195-228 ;  its  definition,  195  ;  its 
Christian  character,  197-198 ;  dictated  by  self-interest,  198-201  ;  its  effect  on 
wages,  201-204 ;  its  relation  to  social  reforms,  215-219 ;  criticised  by  Hon.  R. 
G.  Horr,  220-224,  470-471  ;  Hon.  J.  C.  Hendrix  on,  475  ;  H.  S.  Bellows  on, 
477  ;  as  related  to  morals,  513. 

Fretwell,  John,  on  the  duty  of  public  spirit,  18-19  ;  opposed  to  sumptuary  legisla- 
tion, 19. 

Froude,  James  Anthony,  on  social  science,  23-24  ;  on  the  cat's  pilgrimage,  28. 

Funk,  Rev.  Dr.  I.  K.,  on  moral  questions  in  politics,  576-577. 

GALILEO,  143. 

Gambetta,  81. 

Garfield,  Hon.  James  A.,  on  inequalities  of  representation,  65-66. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  his  antislavery  leadership,  424,  502,  505,  529. 

George,  Henry,  his  single-tax  theory  criticised,  140-141  ;  defended  by  J.  Whidden 
Graham,  144-145. 

Gladstone,  Hon.  William  Ewart,  on  representative  government,  59,  60 ;  his  elo- 
quence, 255,  411  :  his  education,  425  ;  his  noble  character,  535. 

Glasgow,  its  municipal  policy,  154,  157,  179,  180. 

Gold,  its  value  and  use  as  money,  257-267.     . 

Government,  its  nature,  9  :  its  functions  misdirected,  40  ;  as  related  to  represen- 
tation, 55-81,  85,  86 ;  of  cities,  148-191  ;  its  fiscal  powers,  261-282 ;  its  control 


554  Index. 

of  immigration,  291-307  ;  an  art,  352  ;  of  the  people,  407  ;  its  fundamental  na- 

ture, 435-459  ;  as  related  to  the  individual,  521-562. 
Graham,  J.  Whidden,  on  the  land  problem,  144-145. 
Greeley,  Horace,  his  advice  to  young  men,  161-162  ;  his  presidential  aspirations, 

447,  470. 

Greenbacks,  their  value  and  use  as  money,  271-282. 
Gresham's  law,  266,  280. 
Grevy,  President,  81. 

Guizot,  on  representative  government,  61. 
Gunton,  Prof.  George,  on  the  study  of  applied  sociology,  51  ;  on  opportunity, 

143  :  on  the  city  as  an  outpost  of  civilization,  151  ;  on  the  decay  of  Spanish 

cities,  152  ;  on  the  functions  of  government,  176  ;  on  the  protective  tariff,  231- 

243,  249-251. 

HABIT  AND  EDUCATION,  27-31. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  on  the  despotism  of  majorities,  62  ;  his  political  methods, 
437  ;  his  work  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  438,  466  ;  his  leadership  in  the 


Federalist  party,  465. 
re,  Thomas,  on  th 


,       . 
Hare,  Thomas,  on  the  election  of  representatives,  63  and  note,  64-72  ;  on  the  value 

of  the  suffrage,  68. 

Harrison,  President  Benjamin,  his  tariff  views,  218. 
Harrison,  Frederic,  on  the  nature  of  government,  70. 
Hendrix,  Hon.  Joseph  C.,  on  municipal  government,  189-190  ;  on  the  Republican 

Hill,  Honl  David  B.,  his  lack  of  statesmanship,  76  ;  his  nominating  convention, 

408  ;  his  democracy,  436  ;  his  attitude  toward  the  independents,  506. 
Hinrichs,  Frederic  W.,  on  manhood  suffrage  and  the  Hare  system  of  representa- 

tion, 79. 

Hoadly,  Hon.  George,  in  commendation  of  these  lectures,  v. 
Holland,  its  influence  on  American  institutions,  61  and  note. 
Home  rule  need  of,  in  American  cities,  172  ;  a  cure  for  municipal  apathy,  182  ; 

how  it  can  be  restored  in  cities,  183-184,  190  ;  Democratic  doctrine  of,  439-440. 
Horr,  Hon.  Roswell  G.,  in  defense  of  a  protective  tariff,  220-224  ;  on  the  Repub- 

lican party,  465-473,  478-479. 
Howard,  Hon.  Hiram,  186  note. 
Humboldt,  Baron,  on  the  earth,  114. 
Hundredmote,  60. 
Hungarian  immigration,  304,  309. 
Huxley,  Prof.  Thomas  H.,  on  public  education,  413  ;  on  evolutionary  ethics,  512. 

IMMIGRANTS,  lawlessness  of,  as  compared  with  native  anarchism,  11-12  ;  general 

character  of,  291-313. 
Immigration  problem,  291-313. 
Independence,  political,  Dr.  Eccles  on,  29-30  ;  Prof.  Gunton  on,  51  ;  Dr.  Janes  on, 

51-52,  503-504  ;  Hon.  R.  G.  Horr  on,  472  ;  John  A.  Taylor  on,  483-500,  505-506  ; 

Robert  W.  Tayler  on,  501-503  ;  Walter  S.  Logan  on,  504-505. 
Independent  in  politics,  The,  483-506. 
Index,  551. 

Individual  character  and  good  citizenship,  181-182. 
Infertility  of  hybrids,  369-370. 
Italian  immigration,  301-302,  305. 

JANES,  DR.  LEWIS  G.,  on  political  independence,  51-52,  503-504  ;  on  manhood 
suffrage,  80-81  ;  on  the  problem  of  city  government,  149-186  ;  in  reply  to 
critics,  190-191  ;  on  the  free-trade  arguments,  226-227  ;  on  certain  classes  of 
immigrants,  312  ;  on  the  abolitionists,  402  ;  on  education  and  socialism,  430- 
431  :  his  query  about  Philadelphia,  479  ;  on  the  independent  in  politics,  503- 
504. 

Jay,  John,  74,  424,  462. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  409  ;  on  the  dangers  of  government  by  majorities,  62  ;  his 
antislavery  views,  355  note,  445  ;  his  contribution  to  democratic  government, 
437-442  ;  Van  Buren's  relation  to,  448  ;  his  tariff  views,  460,  462,  471  ;  his  politi- 
cal leadership,  465  ;  his  State  rights  doctrine,  466  ;  his  principles  as  related  to 
our  civil  war,  469  ;  his  true  Democracy,  477  ;  his  views  of  party  politics,  497  ; 
on  human  knowledge,  499. 

Jevons,  Prof.  J.  Stanley,  on  money  and  finance,  266-267  ;  on  paper  money,  284. 

Johns  Hopkins  University  pamphlets,  155,  175  note. 

Justice,  Spencer's  work  on,  131  ;  as  related  to  land,  131-133. 

KENYON,  ELLEN  E.,  PD.  M.,  on  education  and  socialism,  428-429. 
Kimball,  Rev.  John  C.,  on  moral  questions  in  politics,  509-540. 


Index.  555 

Kings,  English,  as  related  to  representative  government,  57-59 ;  of  France,  58 ; 

their  place  in  social  evolution,  520-521. 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  on  the  government  of  New  York  city,  545. 

LAND  PROBLEM,  Prof.  O.  T.  Mason  on,  111-130 ;  barbarization  of  land,  115,  125, 
126,  131-143,  385,  400^02  ;  relation  of  classes  to  land,  127  ;  public  and  private 
ownership,  127-128  ;  taxation  of  land  values,  128  ;  James  A.  Skilton  on,  131- 
143  ;  Robert  G.  Eccles  on,  143-144 ;  J.  Whidden  Graham  on,  144-145 ;  as  re- 
lated to  city  government,  178-180,  191. 

Law,  its  part  in  human  government,  9,  483  ;  its  influence  impaired  by  corruption, 
16  ;  evils  of  sumptuary  laws,  19  ;  mingled  good  and  evil  of,  47^8  ;  the  refer- 
endum as  related  to,  74,  184  ;  opposed  to  corrupt  practices,  89-90  ;  as  related 
to  the  land,  128  ;  courts  of,  in  cities,  167  ;  as  related  to  the  state,  520-521  ; 
change  of  sentiment  in  regard  to,  521-522. 

Le  Conte,  Prof.  Joseph,  LL.  D.,  on  the  race  problem  in  the  South,  349-382,  402. 

Levermore,  Prof.  Charles  H.,  on  city  government,  155  ;  on  the  relation  of  national 
to  city  politics,  171. 

Lieber,  Dr.  Francis,  on  the  right  of  free  locomotion,  293. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  his  definition  of  democratic  government,  407  ;  not  a  college- 
educated  man,  425  ;  his  democratic  career,  443  ;  on  the  higher  law,  446  ;  his 
wisdom  and  statesmanship,  447  ;  causes  of  his  election,  468,  469  ;  his  political 
independence,  488,  502  ;  his  abolition  of  slavery,  504. 

Lincoln,  Robert,  74. 

Locke,  John,  on  the  object  of  government,  412. 

Logan,  Walter  S.,  on  suffrage  and  the  ballot,  104-105;  on  the  independent  in 
politics,  504-505. 

Log-rolling,  169,  523. 

London,  its  municipal  government,  19. 

Lords,  House  of,  58  et  sea.  ;  compared  with  the  United  States  Senate,  77  ;  its 
origin,  79-80. 

Low,  Seth,  LL.  D.,  on  the  government  of  New  York  city,  174  ;  his  political  inde- 
pendence, 496. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  an  ideal  citizen,  18  ;  his  views  on  socialism,  67  ;  on  popular 
government,  68  ;  his  patriotic  poems,  422-424  ;  on  our  slovenly  diplomacy, 
441 ;  on  political  independence,  501,  502,  504. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  his  defense  of  Hare's  representative  system,  64  and  note,  65, 
66  note  ;  criticised  by  Henry  Rowley,  80. 

Luther,  Martin,  484. 

McGEE,  PROP.  W  J,  on  the  waste  of  Southern  lands,  114-115,  130  note. 

McKinley,  Hon.  William,  his  tariff  bill,  198,  211,  218,  223,  225,  227. 

Machine  politics,  93-97  ;  in  city  government,  170-172 ;  as  related  to  personal  inde- 
pendence, 487. 

Madison,  James,  his  antislavery  views,  355  note  ,'  his  contribution  to  democratic 
government,  439,  442  ;  his  relation  to  the  Federal  constitution,  462. 

Magna  Charta,  10,  57. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry  Sumner,  on  the  ancient  city,  149. 

Man  and  Nature,  516-520. 

Man's  relation  to  moral  questions,  514-515. 

Mason,  Prof.  Otis  T.,  Ph.  D.,  on  the  land  problem,  111-130, 145,  179. 

Maxwell,  William  H.,  Ph.  D.,  on  public  education,  426-428. 

Mayor,  his  functions  in  American  cities,  164-167. 

Mazzini,  Giuseppe,  on  human  rights  and  duties,  544. 

Mead,  Edwin  D.,  on  representative  government,  55-78,  81. 

Messenger,  Prof.  Hiram  J.,  on  the  tariff,  224-225  ;  on  education  and  citizenship, 
429-430. 

Metals,  precious,  as  related  to  land-exhaustion,  121,  124,  125,  126  ;  their  value  as 
money,  257-263. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  on  Hare's  system  of  representation,  62  ;  on  communism,  67-68; 
on  extra  votes  for  superior  persons,  69  ;  on  the  benefits  of  freedom,  70  ;  on  a 
skilled  democracy,  73 ;  on  an  indolent  majority,  78 ;  criticised  by  Henry 
Rowley,  80. 

Minority  representation,  63-67,  98-103,  106  ;  in  American  cities,  173-174. 

Mirabeau,  on  paper  money.  274. 

Miscegenation,  320-321,  327.32-S,  336,  344,  367-375. 

Monetary  problem,  The,  255-287. 

Morality  in  Nature,  515-516. 

Moral  questions  in  politics,  509-547. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  515. 

Mormonism,  effects  of  its  suppression  by  law,  525. 

Moses,  on  the  origin  of  the  social  state,  7  ;  his  relation  to  politics,  55. 


556  Index. 

Mott,  James  and  Lucretia,  ideal  citizens,  18. 

Mugwump,  51,  52,  4b9,  491,  493,  497,  498,  499,  501,  502,  503,  504,  505,  506. 

Municipal  government,  the  problem  of,  149-191. 

Municipal  lighting,  175,  176,  177. 

NATION,  its  place  in  social  evolution,  232-233  ;  as  related  to  immigration,  291-307. 
National  issues  in  local  affairs,  87,  170-171  and  note,  186. 

Negro,  in  slavery  and  freedom,  317-336  ;  his  origin  and  relation  to  early  civiliza- 
tions, 337-344  ;  his  position  in  America,  349-402. 
Nichols.  Starr  Hoyt,  on  the  monetary  problem,  283-284. 
Nominating  machinery,  100-103. 

ORIGIN  OF  RACKS  AND  COLOR,  338. 

PAPER  MONEY,  271-282,  283,  284,  285. 

Parker,  Theodore,  his  definition  of  democratic  government,  407. 

Parliament,  its  origin.  56  ;  its  development,  57. 

Parochial  schools,  414-416,  427. 

Party  combinations,  91-92. 

Party,  political,  its  use  in  social  evolution,  29-31  ;  its  place  in  representative  gov- 
ernment, 62-66  ;  a  means  of  uniting  voters,  93  ;  how  its  action  is  determined, 
93-94  ;  its  management,  94-96. 

Pascal,  75. 

Paul,  his  conception  of  civic  duty,  5  ;  his  daring  injunction,  516. 

Peel,  Robert,  his  political  independence,  492. 

Peffer,  Senator,  his  financial  schemes,  277-278. 

Pension  system,  its  abuse,  451. 

Phariseeism  in  politics,  490,  501,  503-504,  506. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  on  manhood  suffrage,  173  ;  on  the  scholar  in  politics,  424  ;  on 
the  power  of  the  press,  493  ;  his  antislavery  leadership,  505,  529. 

Pillsbury,  Parker,  529. 

Plato's  Republic,  515. 

Pliny,  on  law  and  principle,  520. 

Political  problem  in  the  South,  375-379. 

Politics,  as  a  profession  and  a  career,  14-15 ;  in  city  and  national  government, 
170-172  ;  the  independent  in,  483-506  ;  as  related  to  moral  questions,  506-547  ; 
imperfections  of  its  methods,  522-527. 

Poll  tax,  69,  378,  420. 

Population  of  American  cities,  159-162. 

Potts,  William,  on  taxation  in  cities,  181  and  note  ;  on  primary  elections,  190  ;  on 
prices  and  wages,  249  ;  on  the  monetary  problem,  255-282,  286-287. 

Principles  of  race  improvement,  365-373. 

Private  schools,  414-418,  427,  428-429. 

Problem  of  city  government,  149-191,  266. 

Property  qualification,  not  in  harmony  with  the  democratic  spirit,  69,  81  ;  not 
effective  in  American  cities,  173,  174  ;  recommended  in  the  South  by  Prof.  Le 
Conte,  377-378. 

Protection,  by  taxation  of  imports,  criticised  by  Thomas  G.  Shearman,  195-219  ; 
by  Lindley  Vinton,  244-247 ;  by  Henry  Rowley,  248-249 ;  defended  by  Hon. 
Roswell  G.  Horr,  220-224,  467,  470-473 ;  by  Dr.  Robert  G.  Eccles,  225-226  ;  by 
Prof.  George  Gunton,  231-243,  249-251  ;  by  Robert  W.  Tayler,  247-248 ;  dis- 
cussed by  Edward  M.  Shepard,  449-450  ;  by  Stewart  L.  Woodford,  460. 

Public  schools,  in  American  cities,  166, 175  ;  in  the  South,  325-327,  333  ;  as  a  prepa- 
ration for  citizenship,  416—121. 

Puritans,  their  idea  of  the  Sabbath,  37  ;  their  relation  to  free  government,  58,  59  ; 
then*  lasting  influence,  458. 

QUAKERS,  their  exemption  from  military  service,  489. 

RACE  IMPROVEMENT,  principles  of,  365-373. 

Race  problem  in  the  South,  349-402. 

Referendum,  74-75,  184. 

Reid,  Whitelaw,  74. 

Remsen,  Daniel  S.,  on  suffrage  and  the  ballot,  85-103,  106-107. 

Representation,  85-87. 

Representative  government,  55-82. 

Republican  party,  its  relation  to  the  Whig  party,  445  ;  its  opposition  to  slavery 
extension,  446-447  ;  its  early  inconsistency,  447  ;  its  position  on  the  tariff  issue, 
450  ;  its  great  services  recognized,  453  ;  compared  with  the  Democratic  party, 
455-456  ;  its  relation  to  the  Federal  party,  461 ;  its  career  outlined  by  Hon.  R. 
G.  Horr,  465-473  ;  criticised  by  Hon.  Joseph  C.  Hendrix,  474-476;  by  Henry  S. 


Index.  557 

Bellows,  477-478  ;  defended  by  George  E.  Waldo,  476-477;  by  Mr.  Horr,  in  re- 
ply, 478-479. 

Roman  Catholics  and  the  public-school  question,  414-416. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  on  machine  politics,  97 ;  on  the  specialization  of  functions 
in  politics,  493. 

Ruskin,  John,  on  party  action,  487. 

SACRED  AND  SECULAR,  false  antithesis  of,  6. 

Sampson,  Z.  Sidney,  on  the  study  of  applied  sociology,  50-51 ;  on  the  immigration 
problem.  291-309,  312-313. 

Schools  public,  in  cities,  166  175  ;  in  the  South,  325-327,  333  ;  private  and  paro- 
chial, 414-418, 427,  428-429  ;  as  a  preparation  for  citizenship,  416-421. 

Science  and  art,  351-354. 

Scientific  method,  applied  to  the  municipal  problem,  158-159 ;  to  the  race  prob- 
lem, 351-354. 

Secularism,  to  be  wisely  cultivated,  16-17  ;  in  the  public  schools,  414-419. 

Senate  of  the  United  States,  its  report  on  representative  reform,  65,  81  ;  its  un- 
equal representation,  76  ;  its  plutocratic  tendency,  76-77  ;  its  meaning  in  our 
Federal  system,  168. 

Seventh-day  Baptists,  489. 

Sewage  problem  and  our  food-supply,  178-180. 

Sex,  genesis  of,  367-373. 

Shaw,  Dr.  Albert,  on  city  government,  155. 

Shearman,  Thomas  G.,  on  taxation  and  revenue,  the  free-trade  view,  195-219, 
227-228. 

Shepard,  Edward  M.,  on  the  Democratic  party,  435-459,  462. 

Sherman,  Hon.  John,  76,  77,  446,  453. 

Shiremote,  60. 

Silver,  its  monetary  use  and  value,  257-262,  266,  276  ;  the  free  coinage  of,  279-282, 
284,  285,  286,  449,  450,  461,  462. 

Single-tax,  128,  140,  141;  in  American  cities,  181  and  note. 

Skilton,  James  A.,  on  the  land  problem,  131-143  ;  on  land  barbarization,  178, 179  ; 
on  the  race  problem  in  the  South,  383-402. 

Slavery,  in  the  United  States,  as  related  to  the  land  problem,  114,  135-143  ;  in  the 
ancient  city,  149  ;  its  origin  and  influence  in  the  United  States,  317-322,  329, 
340,  341  ;  as  related  to  the  race  problem,  349-362, 383-388  ;  its  political  aspects, 
445-447,  467-169,  477-478,  488,  504-505  ;  its  real  essence,  judged  by  sociological 
law,  513  ;  moral  effect  of  its  abolition,  519  ;  law  an  obstacle  to  its  reform,  526; 
lofty  character  of  its  opponents,  529. 

Slaves  as  property,  352-359. 

Smith,  Adam,  134,  142,  143  note,  151. 

Social  compact,  its  obligations,  485. 

Socialism,  defined  and  commended,  67-78  ;  opposed  by  Herbert  Spencer,  72  ;  as 
related  to  city  government,  180  ;  to  public  education,  411-414,  428,  430-432  ;  as 
related  to  anarchism,  517-540. 

Sociology,  study  of  applied,  23-52  ;  bearing  of  statistics  on,  31-32 ;  facts,  not 
wishes,  its  basis,  34-40  ;  misleading  fancies  concerning,  40-42  ;  Spencer's  De- 
scriptive Sociology,  119  note. 

Socrates  on  the  study  of  physics,  406. 

Spahr,  Charles,  Ph.  D.,  on  the  immigration  problem,  308-310. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  on  character  as  the  aim  of  statesmanship,  vii ;  on  the  origin 
of  government,  10 ;  on  the  anti-theological  bias,  51  ;  character  of  his  influ- 
ence, 52  ;  on  the  ultimate  ethics,  52  ;  on  representative  government,  72 ;  his 
opposition  to  socialism,  72 ;  his  Descriptive  Sociology,  119  note ;  on  the  evo- 
lution of  morals,  131  ;  on  social  evolution,  142  ;  on  the  influence  of  cities,  151, 
ir>v! ;  on  woman  suffrage,  175  ;  on  the  health  of  nations,  312 ;  on  the  new 
tyranny,  411  ;  his  individualism,  413 ;  his  views  on  government,  440 ;  on  the 
co-ordination  of  function  with  structure,  493  ;  on  political  evolution,  503  ;  on 
the  functions  of  the  state,  536. 

Spoils  system,  87. 

State  rights,  444-446,  457,  466,  467. 

Statistics,  their  bearing  on  sociology,  31-32  ;  on  education,  410-411. 

Stewart,  T.  McCants,  on  the  history  and  destiny  of  the  negro  race,  337-344. 

Street  railways,  as  related  to  the  municipal  problem,  177-178. 

Study  of  applied  sociology.  23-52. 

Suffrage,  in  Switzerland,  55,  61  ;  its  extension  59-60 ;  in  America,  62-63 ;  a  right 
of  value,  68  ;  its  freedom  imperative,  69-70  ;  and  the  ballot,  85-107  ;  in  Ameri- 
can cities,  173-175  ;  of  women  in  English  cities,  175  ;  of  the  negroes,  333.  343, 
37T.  :\"t 7  ;  as  related  to  political  independence,  483-500  ;  woman's  right  to,  530. 

Sumner,  Chnrlos.  on  the  city  as  the  home  of  freedom.  151  ;  on  the  admission  of 
certain  Territories,  447  ;'his  lofty  personal  character,  535. 


558  Index.     . 

Sunday,  the  best  uses  for,  55  ;  Puritan  uses  of,  458. 
Swiss  voting  customs,  55,  61,  184. 
Sydney,  Sir  Philip,  500,  515. 

TARIFF,  the  free-trade  view  of,  195-228  ;  the  protectionist  view  of,  231-251 ;  a 

moral  question,  543. 
Taxation  and  revenue,  the  free-trade  view,  195-228  ;  the  protectionist  view,  231- 

251  ;  direct  taxation,  247 ;  as  related  to  political  parties,  44CJ,  450,  460,  462,  467, 

470-473. 

Taxation  in  American  cities,  181. 

Tayler,  Robert  W.,  on  the  tariff,  247-248  ;  on  the  independent  in  politics,  501-503. 
Taylor,  John  A.,  on  suffrage  and  the  ballot,  106  ;  on  municipal  government,  187- 

188  ;  on  the  independent  in  politics,  483-500,  505-506. 
Tenure  of  office  in  city  government,  170. 

Thompson,  Daniel  Greenleaf ,  on  the  study  of  applied  sociology,  50. 
Tilden,  Hon.  Samuel  J.,  his  relations  to  city  government,  161 ;  his  Jeffersonian 

politics,  448. 

Tolstoi,  Count  Lyof  N.,  on  love  of  enemies,  197. 
Trading  votes,  90. 

Trades-unions,  defects  of,  12  ;  their  attitude  toward  immigration,  311,  313. 
Turgot,  his  relation  to  representative  government,  58. 
Tyndall,  Prof.  John,  on  the  potency  of  matter,  131. 
Tyranny  of  institutions,  50. 

UNION,  the  American,  as  related  to  the  Democratic  party,  444-447  ;  to  the  Repub- 
lican party,  469. 
United  action  of  voters,  91. 

VAN  BUREN,  MARTIN,  his  ability  as  a  statesman,  443  ;  his  relation  to  the  national 
banks,  443  ;  on  the  relation  of  the  citizen  to  the  Government,  444  ;  his  history 
of  political  parties,  446  ;  his  relations  to  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  448. 

Vendetta,  312. 

Veys,  social  status  of,  341. 

Vinton,  Lindley,  in  defense  of  free  trade,  244-247. 

WAGES,  as  affected  by  free  trade,  201-204  ;  the  protectionist  view  of,  235-239,  245- 
246,  248,  249  ;  as  related  to  prices,  202-204,  236-237,  249-250. 

Waldo.  George  E. ,  on  the  Republican  party,  476-477. 

Walker,  Gen.  Francis  A.,  on  money  and  finance,  258,  262-263,  272. 

Ward  councils,  in  American  cities,  183-184,  190. 

Washington,  George,  a  founder  of  the  Constitution,  10  ;  his  protest  against  no- 
export  duties,  135  ;  his  antislavery  views,  355  note ;  not  a  college-bred  man, 
425  ;  a  political  independent,  487  ;  on  party  spirit,  493. 

Webster,  Daniel,  on  the  evils  of  party  patronage,  496. 

Whig  party,  its  origin,  443  ;  its  views  on  the  national-bank  issue,  443  ;  its  conces- 
sions to  slavery,  445  ;  its  plutocratic  tendencies,  455  ;  its  dissolution,  468. 

White,  Hon.  Andrew  D.,  on  evolution  in  politics,  v. 

Wiclif,  61. 

Williams,  Roger,  his  contributions  to  free  government,  59  ;  his  doctrine  of  soul- 
liberty,  414. 

Williams,  William  H.,  on  party  methods  in  elections,  105. 

William  the  Conqueror,  57. 

Witenagemote,  its  relations  to  representative  government,  56,  57 ;  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  58,  80,  81. 

Wolf,  Alfred  J.,  on  taxing  immigrants,  311. 

Woman's  suffrage,  in  English  cities,  175  ;  its  justice,  530. 

Woodford,  Gen.  Stewart  L.,  his  opposition  to  paper  money,  450 ;  on  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  460-463. 


THE   END. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

^VOLUTION    IN    SCIENCE,    PHILOSOPHY, 
J-~*    AND  AR  T.     A  Series  of  Seventeen  Lectures  and  Discussions 
before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.      With  3  Portraits. 
466  pages.     I2mo.     Cloth,  $2.00.     Separate  Lectures,  in  pam- 
phlet form,  10  cents  each. 

These  popular  essays,  by  some  of  the  ablest  exponents  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  in  this  country,  will  be  read  with  pleasure  and  profit  by  all  lovers 
of  good  literature  and  suggestive  thought.  The  principle  of  evolution,  being 
universal,  admits  of  a  great  diversity  of  applications  and  illustrations ;  some 
of  those  appearing  in  the  present  volume  are  distinctively  fresh  and  new. 

CONTENTS. 

1.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace By  EDWARD  D.  COPE,  Ph.  D. 

2.  Ernst  Haeckel By  THADDEUS  B.  WAKEMAN. 

3.  The  Scientific  Method By  FRANCIS  E.  ABBOT,  Ph.D. 

4.  Herbert  Spencer's  Synthetic  Philosophy.  By  BENJ.  F.  UNDERWOOD. 

5.  Evolution  of  Chemistry By  ROBERT  G.  ECCLES,  M.D. 

6.  Evolution  of  Electric  and  Magnetic  Physics. 

By  ARTHUR  E.  KENNELLY. 

7.  Evolution  of  Botany By  FRED  J.  WULLING,  Ph.  G. 

8.  Zoology  as  related  to  Evolution    ...     By  Rev.  JOHN  C.  KIMBALL. 

9.  Form  and  Color  in  Nature    ....     By  WILLIAM  POTTS. 

10.  Optics  as  related  to  Evolution    .    .    .  By  L.  A.  W.  ALLEMAN,  M.  D. 

11.  Evolution  of  Art By  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR. 

12.  Evolution  of  Architecture By  Rev.  JOHN  W.  CHADWICK. 

13.  Evolution  of  Sculpture By  Prof.  THOMAS  DAVIDSON. 

14.  Evolution  of  Painting By  FORREST  P.  RUNDELL. 

15.  Evolution  of  Music By  Z.  SIDNEY  SAMPSON. 

16.  Life  as  a  Fine  Art By  LEWIS  G.  JANES,  M.  D. 

17.  The  Doctrine  of  Evolution  :  its  Scope  and  Influence. 

By  Prof.  JOHN  FISKE. 

"A  valuable  series." — Chicago  Evening  Journal. 

'  The  addresses  include  some  of  the  most  important  presentations  and  epitomes  pub- 
lished in  America.  They  are  all  upon  important  subjects,  are  prepared  with  great  care, 
and  are  delivered  for  the  most  part  by  highly  eminent  authorities  "—Public  Opinion. 

"  As  a  popular  exposition  of  the  latest  phases  of  evolution  this  series  is  thorough  and 
authoritative. " — Cincinnati  Times-Star. 


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STATICS.      By  HERBERT  SPENCER.      New 

and  revised  edition,  including  "The  Man  versus  the  State,"  a 
series  of  essays  on  political  tendencies  heretofore  published  sepa- 
rately. I2mo.  420  pages.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

Having  been  much  annoyed  by  the  persistent  quotation  from  the  old 
edition  of  "  Social  Statics,"  in  the  face  of  repeated  warnings,  of  views  which 
he  had  abandoned,  and  by  the  misquotation  of  others  which  he  still  holds, 
Mr.  Spencer  some  ten  years  ago  stopped  the  sale  of  the  book  in  England  and 
prohibited  its  translation.  But  the  rapid  spread  of  communistic  theories  gave 
new  life  to  these  misrepresentations  ;  hence  Mr.  Spencer  decided  to  delay  no 
longer  a  statement  of  his  mature  opinions  on  the  rights  of  individuals  and 
the  duty  of  the  state. 

CONTENTS:  Happiness  as  an  Immediate  Aim.  —  Unguided  Expediency.  —  The 
Moral-Sense  Doctrine.—  What  is  Morality  ?—  The  Evanescence  [?  Diminution]  of  Evil. 
—  Greatest  Happiness  must  be  sought  indirectly.  —  Derivation  of  a  First  Principle.  — 
Secondary  Derivation  of  a  First  Principle.  —  First  Principle.  —  Application  of  this  First 
Principle.  —  The  Right  of  Property.  —  Socialism.  —  The  Right  of  Property  in  Ideas.— 
The  Rights  of  Women.—  The  Rights  of  Children.—  Political  Rights.—  The  Constitution 
of  the  State.  —  The  Duty  of  the  State.  —  The  Limit  of  State-Duty.  —  The  Regulation  of 
Commerce.  —  R  eligious  Establishments.  —  Poor-  Laws.  —  National  Education.  —  Govern- 
ment Colonization.  —  Sanitary  Supervision.  —  Currency  Postal  Arrangements,  etc.  — 
General  Considerations.  —  The  New  Toryism.  —  The  Coming  Slavery.  —  The  Sins  of 
Legislators.  —  The  Great  Political  Superstition. 


T 


STUD  Y  OF  SOCIOLOG  Y.     The  fifth  volume 

in  the  International  Scientific  Series.     I2mo.     Cloth,  $1.50. 


CONTENTS  :  Our  Need  of  it.— Is  there  a  Social  Science  ?— Nature  of  the  Social 
Science.— Difficulties  of  the  Social  Science.— Objective  Difficulties.— Subjective  Diffi- 
culties, Intellectual.— Subjective  Difficulties,  Emotional.— The  Educational  Bias.— The 
Bias  of  Patriotism.— The  Class-Bias.— The  Political  Bias.— The  Theological  Bias.— 
Discipline. — Preparation  in  Biology. — Preparation  in  Psychology. — Conclusion. 


New  York :   D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  I,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street. 


D.  APPLETON  &   CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

THE  LATEST  BOOKS  BY  HERBERT  SPENCER. 

E  PRINCIPLES  OF  ETHICS,  Vol.  I.  In- 
eluding  (Part  I)  "  The  Data  of  Ethics  "  ;  (Part  II)  "  The  Induc- 
tion of  Ethics";  and  (Part  III)  "The  Ethics  of  Individual 
Life."  I2mo.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

The  first  part  of  this  volume  was  published  separately  some  years  ago. 
The  author  having  finished  the  second  and  third  parts,  all  are  now  issued  in 
one  book  under  the  above  title,  changed  from  "The  Principles  of  Morality" 
previously  used.  The  binding  is  uniform  with  the  various  other  volumes  in- 
cluded in  the  author's  system  of  "  Synthetic  Philosophy. 

For  convenience  of  those  who  have  already  purchased  Part  I,  Parts  II 
and  III  are  bound  together  in  a  separate  volume  ;  price,  $1.25. 

7USTICE :  Being  the  First  Part  of  Vol.  II  of  "The 
Principles  of  Ethics''     I  vol.     I2mo.     Cloth,  $1.25. 

'  In  a  day  when  every  reader  is  deeply  absorbed  in  the  debate  over  questions  ^of 
n,  such 


ethics  and  the  relations  of  man  to  man,  such  a  work  as  this  from  the  pen  of  one  of  the 
most  profound  of  modern  thinkers  must  make  a  wide  and  lasting  appeal.  Its  appear- 
ance is  a  notable  event  in  the  annals  of  modern  thought."  —  Philadelphia  Bulletin. 

"  The  history  of  nineteenth-century  thought  has  offered  few  gratifications  equal  to 
that  with  which  we  view  the  approaching  completion  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  system 
of  synthetic  philosophy."  —  Chicago  Evening  Journal. 

"  Mr.  Spencer's  style  is  so  lucid  that  to  study  political  economy  of  him  is  rather  a 
pleasure  than  a  task."  —  Chicago  Tribune. 


STATICS.  New  and  revised  edition,  in- 
eluding  "The  Man  versus  The  State,"  a  series  of  essays  on 
political  tendencies  heretofore  published  separately.  I2mo. 
420  pages.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

Having  been  much  annoyed  by  the  persistent  quotation  from  the  old  edi- 
tion of  "Social  Statics,"  in  the  face  of  repeated  warnings,  of  views  which 
he  had  abandoned,  and  by  the  misquotation  of  others  which  he  still  holds, 
Mr.  Spencer  some  ten  years  ago  stopped  the  sale  of  the  book  in  England  and 
prohibited  its  translation.  But  the  rapid  spread  of  communistic  theories 
gave  new  life  to  these  misrepresentations  ;  hence  Mr.  Spencer  decided  to 
delay  no  longer  a  statement  of  his  mature  opinions  on  the  rights  of  individuals 
and  the  duty  of  the  state. 

CONTENTS:  Happiness  as  an  Immediate  Aim.—  Unguided  Expediency.—  The 
Moral-Sense  Doctrine.—  What  is  Morality?—  The  Evanescence  [?  Diminution]  of  Evil. 
—  Greatest  Happiness  must  be  sought  indirectly.  —  Derivation  of  a  First  Principle.  — 
Secondary  Derivation  of  a  First  Principle.  —  First  Principle.  —  Application  of  this  First 
Principle.—  The  Right  of  Property.—  Socialism.—  The  Right  of  Property  in  Ideas.— 
The  Rights  of  Women.—  The  Rights  of  Children.—  Political  Rights.—  The  Constitution 
of  the  State.—  The  Duty  of  the  State.—  The  Limit  of  State-Duty.—  The  Regulation  of 
Commerce.—  -Religious  Establishments.  —  Poor-Laws.  —  National  Education.  —  Govern- 
ment Colonization.—  Sanitary  Supervision.  —  Currency,  Postal  Arrangements,  etc.  — 
General-  Considerations.—  The  New  Toryism.—  The  Coming  Slavery.—  The  Sins  of 
Legislators.—  The  Great  Political  Superstition. 

New  York  :   D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  I,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street. 


E 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


NEW   EDITION  OF    SPENCER'S   ESSAYS. 

SSAYS:  Scientific,  Political,  and  Speculative.  By 
HERBERT  SPENCER.  A  new  edition,  uniform  with  Mr.  Spencer's 
other  works,  including  Seven  New  Essays.  Three  volumes, 
I2mo,  1,460  pages,  with  full  Subject-Index  of  twenty-four  pages. 
Cloth,  $6.00, 

CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  I. 


The  Development  Hypothesis. 

Progress :  its  Law  and  Cause. 

Transcendental  Physiology. 

The  Nebular  Hypothesis, 

Illogical  Geology. 

Bain  on  the  Emotions  and  the  Will. 


The  Social  Organism. 

The  Origin  of  Animal  Worship. 

Morals  and  Moral  Sentiments, 

The  Comparative  Psychology  of  Man. 

Mr.  Martineau  on  Evolution. 

The  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution.* 


CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME   II. 


The  Genesis  of  Science 

The  Classification  of  the  Sciences. 

Reasons  for  dissenting  from  the  Phi- 
losophy of  M.  Comte, 

On  Laws  in  General,  and  the  Order 
of  their  Discovery. 

The  Valuation  of  Evidence. 

What  is  Electricity  ? 

Mill  versus  Hamilton— The  Test  of 
Truth. 

CONTENTS   OF 

Manners  and  Fashion. 
Railway   Morals  and    Railway 

Policy. 

The  Morals  of  Trade. 
Prison-Ethics. 
The  Ethics  of  Kant. 
Absolute  Political  Ethics. 
Over-Legislation. 
Representative  Government — 

What  is  it  good  for  ? 


Replies  to  Criticisms. 

Prof.  Green's  Explanations. 

The  Philosophy  of  Style.t 

Use  and  Beauty. 

The  Sources  of  Architectural  Types 

Gracefulness. 

Personal  Beauty. 

The  Origin  and  Function  of  Music. 

The  Physiology  of  Laughter. 

VOLUME   HI. 

State-Tampering  with   Money  and 

Banks 
Parliamentary  Reform :  the  Dangers 

and  the  Safeguards. 
"  The  Collective  Wisdom." 
Political  Fetichism. 
Specialized  Administration. 
From  Freedom  to  Bondage. 
The  Americans.^ 
Index. 


/ 


*  Also  published  separately.  i2mo.  Cloth,  75  cents, 
t  Also  published  separately.  I2mo.  Cloth,  50  cents, 
%  Also  published  separately.  i2mo.  Paper,  10  cents  ;  cloth,  50  cents. 

New  York :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  I,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street 


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